Secret Affair
by KareKazeshini
Summary: Zoro and Sanji are in a secret relatioship. What happens when their friends start to come close to find out their secret? Contains also Luffy x Nami - alternative universe
1. Chapter 1

**C****hapter 1**

Sanji was coming home from Baratie, the restaurant where he worked, after a busy night. He lived with two brothers, Luffy and Ace. He knew Luffy since forever, and he eventually met Ace one day.

Ace had been working as fireman even when he was still in high school as a part time job, and he had even been called a hero more than once. When he finished school, since his career as a fireman was going pretty well, he decided to make it his full time job.

As for Luffy, who had finished high school around a year and a half ago, he started looking for a job right away, since studying was definitely not his thing. After both of them got a job, Garp, their grandfather, basically kick them out of their house saying they could now have their own house with their own money.

Sanji was pretty successful at high school, but decided not to keep studying, since what he really loved was cooking. Zeff, the man who had taught him how to cook and who had practically raised him, was the owner of the restaurant where he now worked full time. He thought he already owed that man too much and it was time to have his own house and take care of himself. Since neither of the brothers earned that much money, he too wasn't rich, he decided to share a house with them.

The blond man stepped inside his house and found both boys in the kitchen. The younger was sitting at the table while the other was cooking something. He raised his eyebrow.

"It's pretty late. Haven't you had dinner yet?"

"We have. But Luffy was hungry again" the older brother clarified.

Sanji looked at said person, who was giving him an enormous grin. He just smiled softly. He wasn't even surprised, that boy was always hungry!

"Let me, I'll finished that" he said and Ace didn't argue stepping aside and letting the cook do his job.

"Ace was telling me that he thinks you have a girlfriend…" Luffy suddenly said.

"Luffy!" Ace called at the same time he burst out laughing.

"What? Was that not what you told me?"

"Why would you think that?" Sanji asked not taking his eyes of the food he was preparing.

"He says you have been in a better mood for some time now, and I agree with him!"

"Yeah… and you haven't been at home as much as usual" the older brother completed.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I don't have a girlfriend…"

"Come on Sanji… Why are you hiding it from us, we know each other for years. Just tell us who is she… is she cute?"

"I can't tell you anything, because I don't have a girlfriend…"

"Then why are you blushing?"

"I'm not blushing!"

"You are" Luffy confirmed it grinning.

"Shut up Luffy!"

"Come on Sanji… Where have you been then? Why have you been so happy?" Ace insisted.

"I'm a busy person, okay? And does a person need a reason to be happy?"

"If you're not Luffy… yep…"

"The job has been going pretty well…"

"What has been happening to make it go better than usual? And what do you do that makes you so busy?"

"Geez Ace… Are you my father or something?"

"No… I'm your best friend and it annoys me that you won't tell me whatever it's going so well in your life…"

"I am Sanji's best friend!" Luffy claimed with his mouth full, since Sanji had already put a plate full of food in front of him.

"Look… the restaurant just has been having more clients and better critiques. It's really nice to hear so many people saying they like your food. And I have been going to that dojo I told you about, it takes some of my time. And I like to take a drink sometimes… And Luffy, don't talk with your mouth full!"

"Sorry!"

"Well what about you Ace? No girl in sight?" Sanji asked, trying to move the subject away from his personal life.

"No… Girls are so troublesome" the fireman sighed.

"No, girls are lovely!" Sanji corrected.

"I've met a girl!" the younger boy exclaimed.

The other two froze for a second and slowly turned their heads until they were facing him. "What?" they said at the same time.

"I've met a girl at my job some weeks ago. She's a client. We're going to the cinema Monday evening" he informed grinning.

The older men were just shocked. Luffy has never really been interested in romantic affairs and things like that.

"Oh god! I have to meet her!" Ace said, sitting in front of his brother, so interested he forgot his previous conversation with Sanji. "How is she? How did meet her? Do you really like her?"

"She's very nice and pretty, though she sometimes is a little violent. She came to the store because her microwave was broken. Apparently she knows Robin and she told her that Franky could fix almost anything!"

When Luffy first started to work, he worked at several kinds of stores and other places, but never managed to keep his job for long because of his clumsiness. Then this man called Franky offered him a job at his store. He makes all kinds of repairs for electronic devices, cars and many other things. He doesn't let Luffy repair anything, but since he's always at the back of the store doing that job, he needed someone at the counter to serve clients, so he didn't have to be interrupted. It has been the longer Luffy has kept a job, and Franky seemed to want to keep him. Actually he and his beautiful wife, Robin, have become good friends with the three.

"What does she do? How did you see her again?"

"She studies meteorology at university, she's in third year. Apparently she had other things she needed to be fixed, but since they weren't that urgent, she had let them be. After she saw Franky's talent, she started going there to fix the rest."

"Hmmm… I don't think she's interested in Franky's talent!" Ace said grinning, earning a confused look from his brother. "I so want to meet her!"

"You're going to the cinema before or after dinner?" Sanji asked.

"Before dinner, after her last class."

"Ask her to dinner and come to my restaurant! That way we can meet her."

"Yes! But we'll have a discount, right?" Luffy and Ace said at the same time.

"Sure… sure… but Ace, you come early and help at the kitchen!"

"Okay!" It was usual for the two brothers go to Baratie sometimes and get a discount. But Zeff have only allowed it if at least one of them would help at shores like cleaning the kitchen or working as a waiter in case the restaurant was too full. It was usually Ace, once again because of Luffy's clumsiness.

"Luffy, ask her if she doesn't mind to come a bit later, when the restaurant starts to get emptier. That way I might be able to eat with you. But only if she doesn't mind!"

"Sure, I'll ask her!"

**X x X x X**

Zoro was heading to the fast-food restaurant where he was meeting his friends. He knew Nami, Usopp and Chopper since childhood and they have been friends since then. They lived near each other at a little village and they used to play together.

When he completed his high school, he got a job to teach kendo at a very popular dojo in the city and he bought a little apartment over there. One year after, it was Nami's turn to finish high school and she rented a little apartment not far from Zoro's, since the university she was going to attend was around that area.

Usopp and Chopper came to the city in the next year. Chopper was younger, but since he was so smart, he had skipped a year and both of them were going to university at that same city, Chopper to medical school and Usopp to mechanical engineering. They knew this man called Brook, who owned a store that sells all kind of musical instrumental and also teaches how to play them, from their previous visits to the city. Chopper and Usopp were looking for a place to stay and Brook said they could rent a room at his house, since his house was too big for him alone.

Brook became good friends with them and though he was a lot older, he was in his forties, he was very easy-going and he used to hang around with them many times.

When Zoro got there, Nami, Usopp, Chopper and Brook were already sitting at a table.

"Damn it Zoro! You're late!" the girl yelled.

"I bet he got lost!" the long-nosed boy stated.

"We always come here, how can he not have memorized how to get here yet?" Chopper asked.

"I didn't get lost. I was doing something else."

"Meeting your lover, Zoro-kun?" Nami said, earning giggles from the rest of the group.

The green-haired man rolled his eyes, annoyed. "What lover?"

"I'm messing with you, Zoro… You're no fun!"

"Well I didn't get lost, and Chopper is right, we always come here. Aren't you guys growing tired of this food?"

"It's Nami's fault… She always says she doesn't want to spend too much money when we go have dinner" Usopp said.

"Don't complain… the food is pretty food" she defended.

"I have to agree with Nami-san" Brook spoke.

"It's true, but there are many other restaurant with good food that aren't that expensive" Zoro insisted.

"You seem to know a lot about it. Have you been taking girls to dinner? You know, if you pay me dinner I won't mind to go to one of those restaurants" Nami said.

"Shut up!"

"Oh my god! Zoro's blushing! I was right? Have you been taking girls or just one girl?"

"I'm not blushing and I have not been taking anyone to dinner!"

"Has someone been taking you to dinner then?"

Zoro covered his face with his hand while rolling his eyes "No Nami… if you want to talk about dates and that kind of stuff, I'm not the right person. Just ask Usopp about him and Kaya."

Nami turned her head to said person "Oh yeah! How has it been going with you two?"

"Well… things have been pretty well…" Usopp answered a bit embarrassed.

"Good! You two are finally dating… It was so obvious for years that you two liked each other, but at the rate you were going, I thought you would never become girlfriend and boyfriend."

"Kaya-san is a very nice girl" the tall man commented.

"You've met her, Brook?" the orange-haired girl asked.

"Yes, Chopper brings her home from time to time."

"Chopper?" Zoro asked confused.

"Yes Chopper. Don't you pay attention to anything? Kaya is in the same class as Chopper, they're both second year students at medical school" Nami informed him annoyed.

"Yes, I bring her to our house to study, when we have a test coming."

"Oi Chopper! You better not steal my girlfriend!"

"I would never do that, you stupid! I bring her home, so you can be with her! Otherwise we could study at the university!"

"I know, I know. I'm messing with you."

"What about you, Nami-san? No dates?" Brook asked.

"Well… I'm going to the cinema with this boy on Monday."

Usopp choked on his drink. "What? You actually accepted to go out with someone? You always dump them!"

"Well, they're usually assholes drooling all over me. All they care is my appearance. This boy, I think he actually likes me for who I am."

"That's hard to believe, you're a pain in the ass" Zoro said, earning a punch from Nami right away.

"Shut up!"

"Where did you meet this boy?" Chopper asked interested.

"I've told you about my teacher, Robin-sensei, right?" the rest of them nodded.

Robin was a history teacher at Nami's university, and though Nami didn't have any history class, this year she had an optional class, where she could pick a class from other courses, and she picked history, meeting Robin as her teacher and somehow they ended up becoming somewhat friends.

"I don't even remember why, but I told her my microwave was broken and she told me her husband can fix almost anything and told me where his store was. Well that boy works there. He's a bit childish, but he's a very nice person. He talks to me like the person I am, and not like some chick he wants to bang, like most boys do. I thought I should give it a try."

"Wow Nami! You rarely accept to go on a date, and when you do, most of the times you come back saying the guy was a jerk. I wonder if that will happen again." Usopp said.

"I'm not sure if this is a date. He just asked me to go to the cinema. It was so casual."

"Well, we'll see after Monday. You'll tell us about it, right?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Sanji was at the restaurant and it was one of those busy nights, he couldn't even think about resting with so many things to cook. Suddenly he heard a familiar voice.

"Oi Sanji! I'm here!" he turned around to meet Ace stepping inside the kitchen.

"Great! You come at a good hour, this is super busy! Go ask the waiters if they need help. If they don't, I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of stuff you can help with here."

"Okay… Can you believe it? Luffy is on a date! And we're going to meet her!"

"Yeah, it's hard to believe, but not that hard, he's a nice boy" Sanji said smiling.

"I know. By the way, Robin and Franky are coming as well…"

"I know, Luffy told me. I think Franky invited himself, when he heard Luffy was coming here."

"Who would miss a chance to eat your food?" Ace grinned at him and walked away, trying to find where he could be helpful.

Finally the restaurant was getting emptier and calmer and Sanji decided it was time to start preparing the food for his special guests. He had sent Luffy a text with the menu, so he and the girl could chose what they wanted, so Sanji could save them their choice. The stress from the night was already draining out of him as he finally found some time to breathe calmly. He had asked Ace to set their table ready.

"Sanji-bro!" he turned around to see Franky's head popping out of the kitchen's door. "Just to tell you that me and Robin are here."

"Good. Find Ace and he'll tell you the table."

Not much time after that, Ace came in, telling him he was going to wait for Luffy outside. Fifteen minutes after he was there again.

"They're here! Luffy was right, she's very pretty."

"Really? Oi you! Take care of this for a minute while I go outside" the blond man asked the nearest cook. He accompanied Ace to their table where he saw Franky, Robin, Luffy and a beautiful orange-haired girl by his side.

"Ah! Nami, this is Sanji, the one who will be making us dinner tonight. Sanji, this is Nami." The younger boy said with a big smile in his face.

"Nice to meet you, Sanji-san. And sorry for the trouble." Nami said, bowing her head politely.

"Oh no! It's a pleasure to have such a beautiful flower at the restaurant." He said, bowing completely. "Well two beautiful flowers actually" he added, smiling softly at Robin. "Now, if you excuse me I have to go back to the kitchen. Dinner will be ready very soon."

**X x X x X**

Zoro woke up at the sound of someone hammering at his door. He got up grumbling to himself and he opened the door.

"Alleluia Zoro! I thought you were going to leave me outside."

"Damn it Nami, what do you want? You know I don't work Tuesdays mornings."

"I know, but I think I left a book here, last week. I remembered yesterday night that I need to return it to the library today. I was already in my pajamas, so I thought I should come here in the morning" she informed him, as she started looking for her book.

"I hate you for waking me up. And it's too damn early, even for you to go to classes."

"I'm not sure if it is here, so I need time in case I have to look for it at some other places. Damn it Zoro! This place is mess! How can you find anything here?"

Zoro rolled his eyes "Shut up! It's my place, not yours!"

"Ah! Here it is!"

"So, how was it yesterday?"

Nami widened her eyes "Wow I'm surprised you remember! It was very pleasant. He took me to this restaurant after the movie."

"Oh really? So with him you go to other restaurants that are not fast-food."

"His friend is a cook at the restaurant, the Sous-chef or something like that. So we got a discount."

"Of course, for what other reason would you, money-maniac, accept to go."

"Don't be such an asshole. He wanted to pay me dinner, but I know he doesn't make that much money, so I refused. I'm not a witch as you think I am!"

"My apologies!" he answered a bit sarcastically.

"Anyway, I met his brother and his friend, the cook. They were both very nice. Good people to chat with. I thought it was going to be awkward, but it wasn't, not at all. Robin-sensei and her husband were there too. Having someone I knew and being her a woman made the dinner even more pleasant. And the food was delicious, his friend prepared it for us."

"So your date went well. That's new!"

"What about you? Have you been seeing someone? 'Cause I really have a feeling you have."

"W-what? No! Where did you get that idea from?"

"I don't really know. You have been acting a bit mysterious when we ask you why you are late, or why can't you be with us. So I think you have been meeting someone and you're hiding it from us." She said straight to the point.

"Well it's just your imagination…" Zoro answered, looking away.

"Don't lie to me! You're a bad liar… Is it a she or a he?"

"What?" he yelled, he felt his cheeks heat and he wished very hard he wasn't blushing.

"Come on… The hottest girl in the world could be naked in front of you and you wouldn't even blink. You wouldn't care one bit. It's not like I have seen you checking guys out, because I haven't. But I know you for so long and I still haven't figured it out if you're straight, gay, bisexual or even asexual! Yes I have seen you dating girls, but you never looked that interested…"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Zoro didn't like the course of this conversation one bit.

"Zoro…" she said deadly serious, "if you're not telling us because you've been seeing a man, you should know we would never judge you and we would accept it as naturally as if you were seeing a girl. We're your friends and we just want you to be happy."

"Whatever you're talking about, it's just in your head. Anyway, I'm going back to bed, you can stay here until it's time for you to leave." He said turning away.

"What? You're a bad host. That's how you treat a guest? We're not done talking yet."

"Yes, we are. And you're not a guest. You interrupted my sleeping time and invaded my house."

"I'm sorry. But you should know that you already sleep way too many hours more than normal people."

"Whatever!" he said closing his bedroom's door behind him.

**X x X x X**

That same day, at night, Zoro was leaning against a building, waiting. He looked around, but he didn't see who he was looking for. He started thinking about the conversation he had with Nami in the morning. He hated how the girl could figure things out so easily. He would be better off if she was a bit dumber. He still couldn't believe she had figured that out about him. But he couldn't tell her she was right. Some minutes after he looked again and his face couldn't help but light up a bit when he saw a blond head.

"You're late, stupid cook!"

"Shut up, shitty-marimo! Unlike you, I'm a busy person."

"Is that so? Thank you so much for such a busy person making some time to meet me." He said sarcastically as they both started to walk. "So why was it that you couldn't meet me yesterday?"

"I had some special guests I had to cook for at the restaurant, when it started to get empty."

"Special guests?"

"Yes, one of the boys who I live with was bringing his date, so me and his brother, who also lives with me, could meet her. She was really pretty. That boy sure is lucky!"

Zoro felt like that story sounded familiar for some reason he couldn't really say which, but he decided to ignore it. "Are you jealous of him?"

Sanji laughed out loud "What if I told you I was?"

He rolled his eyes. "I couldn't care less…"

"Yeah right…" the blonde grinned. "A couple friends of ours were there too. Apparently she knows the girl, she's her teacher, I believe."

And then it hit Zoro. He could hear Sanji's and Nami's voices speaking alternatively in his mind.

"_I had some special guests I_ _had to cook for at the restaurant…"_

"_His friend is a cook at the restaurant, the Sous-chef or something like that…"_

"… _so me and his brother, who also lives with me, could meet her…"_

"_I met his brother and his friend, the cook…"_

"_A couple friends of ours were there too. Apparently she knows the girl, she's her teacher, I believe."_

"_Robin-sensei and her husband were there too."_

"Zoro? Are you okay?" Sanji asked worried since the other had stopped walking all of the sudden.

"Was that girl's name Nami?"

Sanji widened his eyes "Yes! How do you know?"

The green-haired man covered his face with his hand and started walking again "She's my friend… I kinda had heard that story before and I was starting to think it was sounding awfully familiar."

"Wow… what a coincidence! My friend and your friend went out on a date."

"Yeah… So your friend just went on his first date with this girl and he already took her to meet his brother and friends…"

"What? Are you jealous?" Sanji smirked as he hit his shoulder against Zoro's.

"I'm not jealous… It was just an observation" he answered looking away.

"Look, I'm not ready yet. They're expecting me to bring a girl to meet them. I have no idea how they would react if I bring… you know… you! I just don't feel ready to tell them, okay?"

"Okay, I couldn't care less about it. Like I said I was just making an observation… Do however you want."

"I know I had asked you not to tell your friends, though it is none of my business, but now, please do not tell Nami!"

"Yeah sure whatever…"

The blonde stopped in front of the other man and gently rested his hand on the other's face. He leaned forward and pressed his lips on Zoro's lips softly trying to show he was grateful without saying those words his pride prevented him from saying. The green-haired man couldn't help but respond and kiss him back.

As they parted, Sanji felt himself shiver and cursed at himself for not bringing a warmer coat. He looked at the man in front of him. That coat looked so warm. He opened his coat zipper in a quick move and slipped his arms under the coat and around the other man.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"It's cold!"

"I know, it's January, what were you expecting?" the swordsman said warping his arms around the shivering man.

"The kitchen is so warm, I sometimes forget it's so cold outside."

"That just proves that you're an idiot."

"Shut up and warm me!" Zoro just smirked and brushed his lips over the blond hair, tightening his grip around the slender man as he tried to transfer the most heat he could to him.

"You know… one of my roommates thinks I have a girlfriend. He's pretty convinced about it and the other one seems to agree with him" the cook said, his head resting on the other's shoulder.

"What did you tell him?"

"The truth…"

"Oh?" the green-haired man raised his eyebrow.

"I told him I don't have a girlfriend" Sanji raised his head and grinned, "It's the truth! You sure have nothing girly like."

"Unlike you!" Zoro said smirking and got a powerful knee through his stomach immediately. "Ouch!"

"Say that again and I'll make you puke your own stomach!" the blonde spoke angrily.

"I was joking!" he said laughing in a mist of amusement and pain, tightening his grip around the other, making sure he wouldn't knee him again. "Did he believe it?"

"Nope… He thinks I'm hiding it from him. I think he's a bit upset about that. I just hope he doesn't start to investigate…"

"I understand you. Nami is also onto me. She put this thought in her head that I'm seeing someone, she probably won't give up on it until she proves it one way or the other" the swordsman sighed.

"Well she's right… "

"I know… and I hate her for being always right!"

"You just have to make her believe she's wrong."

"Oh you say it like that's easy… Anyway are you warm enough now?"

"Yeah… You're like a freaking human radiator! How can you be so warm with this weather?"

"I wear warm clothes, unlike a stupid chef I know…"

* * *

><p><em>This is the second fanfic I write (though my first one is still incomplete). English is not my mother language, so this might have a lot of mistakes. If you spot one, I would appreciate if you could point them out to me. Some of them might be pure distractions, but others could be just ignorance, so if you tell me, I can learn and write correctly next time =) I'm trying the best I can<em>

_I hope you enjoy it_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

In the next morning, Zoro had just finished dressing when he heard knocking on his door. It was Wednesday, so he knew exactly who was at his door. He worked Wednesday's mornings, and it happened to be the day his three student friends had classes in the morning at the same time, so they had made it a habit to have breakfast at Zoro's apartment on Wednesdays before heading to their classes.

Zoro opened the door and Usopp, Chopper and Nami stormed inside his home like it was their own.

"Morning Zoro!" Usopp greeted.

"Good morning!" Chopper followed. Zoro murmured a sleepy response.

"Nami was just telling us about her date. It didn't go wrong! We should celebrate!"

"You're overreacting Usopp…" the girl sighed.

"You met his brother and friends! This is going to be marriage!"

"Usopp… I'm this far from punching you!" Nami threatened, while they sat at Zoro's little table in his kitchen.

"Stay calm Nami! I'm joking! It's just that it is very hard to please you. I'm just curious."

"Yeah, me too! I want to meet him!" the younger boy said.

"Chopper is right! You met his friends, now he meets your friends. How about we invite him to one of our bowling nights?"

"I don't know. Are you guys sure about this?" the orange-haired asked uncertain.

"Sure. Why not?" the long-nosed boy said.

"Yes! It's a good idea." Chopper agreed. "What do you think, Zoro?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Well, then I think I'll invite him. I pretty sure you'll love him. He's just the type of person you" she pointed to both Usopp and Chopper "would be friends with".

**X x X x X**

Sanji was cooking, Wednesday was his night off, while chatting casually with Ace when Luffy stormed inside the kitchen and dumped himself on a chair, resting his chin on the table. "Ahhh… I'm tired… Franky made me clean the whole store today…"

"It isn't that big, you know?" Ace commented.

"Well it looked a hell lot bigger today. I pretty sure it grew bigger today." He looked up at Ace and grinned.

"You look happy though" the older brother raised an eyebrow.

"I'm going to eat Sanji's food today" his grin grew wider. "It already smells so good."

"Well you better keep your filthy hands off the food before it is ready" Sanji warned him.

"Okay, okay… and besides I'm going bowling with Nami and her friends! She says I'm going to love her friends. I can't wait!"

"Wow it sounds like fun!" Ace said smiling.

"Yeah!" the younger brother laughed. "Oi Sanji! One of her friends works at this dojo, I can't remember the name, but I'm pretty sure it's the same you go to. He doesn't practice the same as you, he teaches something with swords, but maybe you saw him there."

Sanji could feel drops of sweat form under his bangs. "Yeah, maybe… who knows?"

"His name was… what was it again? I really can't remember it…"

"Blame your shitty memory" the blonde tried to look casual. However Ace had already noticed a suspicious tone of red across his friend's face.

"Sanji… you're blushing…" he noted.

"W-what? You're seeing things" Sanji started sweating even more.

"I see!" Ace's face lit in understanding. "You met your girlfriend at that dojo and talking about it made you think about her and blush!"

"What kind of logic is that?"

"Are you going to deny it?"

"Yes! That is not true!" Sanji could honestly say that it wasn't the truth; he just couldn't say that the only word that made it false was the word «girlfriend».

"If I ever meet that guy, I'm going to ask him if he ever saw you leave that dojo with a girl. If he confirms it, then you'll have to stop hiding it from us."

"I'm not hiding anything" now Sanji was lying. He prayed with all his might that Ace's wish would never come true, and if it did, Zoro would just tell him he never saw Sanji leaving with anyone with his indifferent facial expression, but Sanji doubt Zoro was a good liar.

Ace just gave him a suspicious look, while Luffy looked from one to the other, unaware of the reason of this sudden tension between the two of them. Ace knew Sanji since many years ago, and he could tell almost every time his friend was lying and he would put his hand on the fire that this was one of those times. Why he was lying and hiding things from him was a mystery to him. Sanji always seemed to trust him, why would this situation be any different?

Sanji could feel the gaze of the older brother on him, analyzing him. He knew Ace knew he was lying. But he couldn't tell him the truth. Even if he did, Ace would never believe him. He would just laugh and say "come on, now tell the truth". He definitely could not tell him. He just had to be a better liar. He tried to ignore his gaze on him by concentrating on the meal before him waiting to be prepared.

**X x X x X**

Sanji got home from work a bit later than usual since he had stayed there discussing some matters with Zeff, and found both brothers sitting at the couch watching a movie. Both had a sleepy face on, but they seemed to be paying attention to the movie non-the-less. He sat between the dark-haired brothers, relieved to finally being sitting comfortably and Luffy suddenly realizing he was home snapped his head towards him asking anxiously "Did you bring some left-overs?"

"Yes, I put them at the kitchen table…" the Chef answered tiredly.

The younger boy jumped right away and ran towards the kitchen, his sleepy face gone. He came back shortly after, eating from the recipient Sanji had brought the food in. The blond noticed this, to his dislike, but he was too tired to lecture Luffy. Instead he asked, since he was too curious, "So, Luffy, how was bowling?"

"It was great!" he replied enthusiastically. "Her friends are so cool! Usopp and Chopper are so funny. Usopp was always telling these unbelievable stories. I laughed so much. And Chopper is so cute, but he has this swings mood and gets a bit aggressive sometimes. And if you compliment him, he acts all happy, but says he isn't happy at all. At some point we three put chopsticks in our noses and started doing this dance, it was so funny, but I think Nami didn't like it that much. She punched us three in the head…"

Sanji could understand why Nami didn't enjoy their show, but decided to ignore this last part and say "Sounds like you had fun".

"Oh yes I did! But Brook was the funniest! He is super tall and he's so skinny that us three would look fat compared to him. So he's always making these jokes, because he's almost just bones and skin. He's so funny!" Luffy kept talking eagerly, laughing at the memories of Brook's jokes. "And when we got there, this girl who worked there was giving us those special shoes for bowling and he asked her if he could see her panties" this time the black-haired boy started laughing really hard, remembering this scene. However Sanji was shocked.

"He said that? That is sexual harassment! That is no way to talk to a lady. That guy should learn some manners!" the blonde was feeling outrageous by that man's behavior and he was a friend of lovely Nami-san?

"But Brook is always very polite. He has better manners that even you, Sanji. When you are not around women you tend to say a lot of bad words." The cook didn't like being said to have fewer manners than a man who was capable to ask such thing to ladies, but he didn't feel like arguing and Luffy had a point on his last statement, even though it was hard for him to admit. "Actually it's the fact that he's always so polite that made it so funny. And he was even being polite when he asked her. So, so funny! The girl got embarrassed and she didn't know what to say, but Nami helped her by punching Brook and tell the girl to never mind him."

While Luffy was now very enthusiastic, Ace was still looking as sleepy as when Sanji walked in. He was now resting his head on Sanji's shoulder and was still watching the movie. He had probably already heard all of this before, but the Chef knew that at the same time he was listening to the story again. He didn't have to look at the older brother; he could feel that behind that sleepy and tired face he was smiling for seeing his little brother so happy.

"And then there's Zoro, he isn't as funny as the other three, he's more calm and silent, but he's so cool. He won our bowling game, only by a few points more than Usopp. Zoro would make a strike most of the time because he has a lot of strength. Usopp's tries were kinda slow and weak, but he knew exactly where to hit in order to take all pins down. His aim was amazing! I was completely amazed and Chopper says no matter how many times he sees him bowling he's always amazed by his aim. But sometimes he's a bit clumsy, so Zoro won."

"Sounds like you really had fun. But what about your bowling skills?" Sanji asked, making an effort not to be bothered by Luffy talking with his mouth full.

"I got third place. I also have a lot of strength that could take a lot of pins down, but I'm also a bit clumsy and my aim isn't the best, so…" Luffy gave a big, but a bit embarrassed grin to Sanji "Nami got fourth place, Brook fifth and Chopper got last. And you're right: I had so much fun! But like I was saying, Zoro is pretty cool. Nami had told me I shouldn't wear my straw hat inside closed places, so I placed it on a little table. When we were leaving, I don't know how this happened, but I forgot it." This time the cook could see a little pain in his friend's face, he clearly felt guilty for leaving such an important thing to him behind. "And Zoro was the one who noticed it and brought it to me. It was very nice of him and I'm very thankful to him." His voice was now softer and more serious, but he quickly recovered his enthusiastic tone "And like I told you before, he works at the dojo you go to, he teaches something with swords. Though he teaches how to wield one sword only, he told me he can use three at a time. How cool is that? Three swords!"

"Did you ask him if he knew Sanji?" Ace finally spoke.

"Ah! I did, but he didn't answer. He got up and said it was his turn. The funny thing is it wasn't his turn, I think he got confused. And I forgot to ask later."

"So do you know this Zoro guy?" the fireman asked.

"Ah yes… I've met him a few times…" the blonde replied, trying to hide his embarrassment. He was glad Ace was paying more attention to the TV than to their conversation. If he was looking at his face, he would certainly notice and say something. "Well, I'm going to bed. I'm too tired" he said getting up, while the other two murmured good night wishes.

**X x X x X**

The next day, Zoro met Usopp at his university canteen for lunch.

"So what did you think of Luffy?" the long-nosed boy asked while they waited on the queue.

"He seems to be a good guy. He's a bit too loud, but I liked him though."

"He's so cool and funny! And yeah, he's a bit loud, but Nami is already used to us" Usopp said and broke into laughter the next moment.

"Don't you mean used to you?"

"But I never thought she would date a guy like him. I think she would go for the mature and serious type, since she's so picky."

"It actually makes sense to me. She needs someone who makes her laugh, without being some jerk who thinks he's funny, some guy who can clear her head from serious things, after all she has been through."

"Hmmm… I guess you're right, but it had never crossed my mind. But after what I've seen yesterday, I think I have to say you're right. She looked happy" Usopp said with a thoughtful look.

"Yeah… She looked happy. Though she sometimes got mad at him, it was a healthy mad. Most of the time she was genuinely smiling or laughing. I hadn't seen her looking so carefree for a while."

"Zoro…" Usopp looked at him in the eyes and talked with a dead serious expression. "Are you in love with Nami?"

The swordsman couldn't help but laugh really loud. "What? No! Of course not! She's a pain in the ass…"

"You were talking like that about her. I have never heard you talk that thoughtfully about anyone, and especially not Nami, before."

"Nami is my best friend, just like you and Chopper. Even if you think I'm an insensitive dork I'm pleased to see when my friends are happy and Nami is not an exception. Just like I like to see your happy face when you talk about Kaya."

"Wow! So you're not an insensitive dork after all…" the long-nosed boy looked truly surprised.

"Oi! Did you actually think that about me?"

"So like I was saying Luffy is very cool" the younger boy said avoiding the other's question. "He has an older brother, I wonder if he's as cool as Luffy. I bet he is! And he told me he has a friend who is a Chef and prepares the best meals in the world. With just Luffy talking about it made my mouth water. Luffy said we should try his food one of these days. Nami has tried it and she confirmed that it was delicious!"

Zoro just hummed in response, thinking how troublesome it would be if they all ever get to meet Sanji.

"And Luffy's boss, and I believe he's his friend too, is an engineer. And a great one from what he told me. When I told Luffy I was studying engineering, he told me I should meet his boss. Franky is his name I think. And his wife, Nami's teacher, she told me she's the most beautiful woman she ever met. So my conclusion is that we have to meet Luffy's friends."

Before Zoro could say anything in response, his phone started to ring. He took it from his pocket. On its screen the name "Sanji" could be read. _'Speaking of the devil…'_ he thought as he raised an eyebrow, since it was not likely for Sanji to call him at this time of the day. He clicked the green button and took the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"_Hey shit-head!_"

"What do you want, dartboard?"

"_I just thought that I should let you know that yesterday I talked to Luffy and I ended up telling him that I have met you a few times at the dojo. Just in case Luffy asks you too for some reason and you don't decide to tell him you never saw me before. Just so our stories match. So for the record, we know each other from seeing each other at the dojo a few times._"

"Okay… Is that all?"

"_Yes. I just thought I should tell you before I forget._"

"All right. See you…"

"_See you later idiot-marimo_" the blonde said and the call was disconnected before Zoro could insult him back.

"Dartboard?" Usopp asked with a confused tilt of his head.

"You would understand if you knew him" and suddenly realization from what Usopp had been saying for the past minutes hit him. Apparently Usopp was very fond of the idea of meeting Luffy's cook friend, which meant the chances of him meeting Sanji, the guy with eyebrows that looked like a dartboard, was now pretty high. Zoro just hoped that day wasn't that near, because it would be troublesome and he didn't feel like dealing with it in a near future.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

During the next few weeks, Luffy kept on meeting Nami's friends and Nami kept on meeting Luffy's friends, mostly for dinner served by Sanji. It was a good chance for Luffy to hang around people closer to his age, like Usopp and Chopper, once in a while, with who he could goof around. And Nami also liked to hang around more mature and polite people, like Robin, Sanji and Ace, from time to time.

One night Sanji was preparing what would probably be the last meal that night at the restaurant, when he heard a sound coming from his phone announcing an incoming text message. He took the phone from his pocket and saw that the text was from Zoro. He hit a button to open the message. It could be read the line: "_I'm at your house right now_".

A million thoughts shot through his head and he started to feel a bit angry. Why the hell was he at his house? Did he mean he was waiting by his house? Why? He knew Sanji would have never wanted that, considering he lived with two other people. And did he even know where he lived? Well, probably… But he still shouldn't go there without his permission. Felling his blood boil, he took a deep breath to calm his thoughts and wrote a simple reply: "_Why the fuck are you at my house?_".

The reply came some moments after: "_Luffy was hanging with us somewhere near your house and he invited us to go there to meet his brother. He ended up inviting his boss and wife too. I just thought I should tell you, so when you come home, you won't be that surprised to see me there_". Sanji let out a relieved sigh. So he was there because he was invited, not because he felt like it. Though his anger had gone away, he started feeling nervous. Well he had some stuff to deal with Zeff after the restaurant was closed, so when he got home, they would have left already, probably. Or at least he hoped. Clinging to that thought and being less preoccupied, he typed a response: "_You should have made that fucking clear in the first text, you asshole_".

**X x X x X**

"Ha ha! We won again!" Usopp exclaimed and high-fived Luffy.

"Geez… I can't believe I lost to Luffy" Ace said good-tempered, putting his cards on the table.

"Well, your brother is paired with me. No one can defeat the great Usopp!" the long-nosed boy stated, sticking a thumb on his swollen chest in a proud gesture.

"It's true! Usopp is a great card player" Chopper confirmed it.

"Well if Sanji was here, then I wouldn't be so sure. Whoever pairs with him wins" the older brother said, having Luffy nodding by his side as a confirmation.

Zoro, who was sitting at the couch with Brook and Franky drinking a beer, was dragged from the older men's conversation to Ace's words at hearing Sanji's name.

"Well I would like to meet that Sanji, to prove whose theory is right, mine or yours" the engineer-to-be said grinning.

"It's getting late, I don't know what's taking him so long. I think I'll call him" Ace got up, getting his phone from his pocket, dialed Sanji's number and hit the green button.

'_He's probably lingering at his job, so he won't have to meet me'_ Zoro thought somewhat bitterly.

"Hey Sanji! How come you aren't home yet? We have guests here, you shouldn't take too long or it would be rude."

…

"Yeah, guests… Luffy brought Nami and her friends here, you should come. Robin and Franky are here too. You're the only one missing."

…

"Don't you think it's a bit too late to be working? Come home already!"

…

"I don't care… Just come. And hurry up!"

…

"See you then." Ace hung up and announced "He was at work taking care of some business with Zeff about the restaurant. He said he'll be here soon."

"Finally!" Luffy exclaimed. "Too bad it's kinda late for him to prepare you something to eat. I swear he's the best cook in the world!"

"I sure would like to try it. Nami has told us how delicious it is." Usopp said.

Zoro got up suddenly and said "Well I should go. I'm very tired and I have to work tomorrow morning, so before I fall asleep on your couch I should go home."

Nami, who was chatting with Robin, raised an eyebrow at hearing this. It was Tuesday, he didn't work Tuesday's mornings and she knew for a fact that he spent those mornings sleeping, since it was one of his favorite things to do. What had he been doing the rest of the day to possibly be that tired?

"Already Zoro? You should stay a little longer!" Luffy said pouting.

**X x X x X**

Sanji was approaching his building. He had promised Ace he would go home and he wouldn't make them wait too long, so he came home right away. What was the point of making them wait and convincing Zeff that tonight was the night to talk about business when the old man look visibly tired and the guests didn't seem to want to leave before he got home?

But his heart was racing at an incredible speed. What was he supposed to do? Greet Zoro with an indifferent "hey" like they were just acquaintances that have passed by each other at the dojo from time to time or talk to him more casually like two guys who have traded more than just "hey" and have actually chatted a bit. Or should he just insult him like he does most of the time. After all, most people who would see them together wouldn't say they were a couple. They passed most of the time insulting each other and fighting verbally and even physically. Well they did have some sweet moments sometimes, but only when no one was looking.

He was so lost in his thoughts he didn't notice the figure stepping out of the building until he ran into that person. He almost fell behind and with a quick glance making sure that person wasn't a girl, he said accusingly, even though he was the one not paying attention, "Watch where you're g… Zoro?"

"Sanji?"

All the nerves the cook was feeling suddenly gathered and transform into some kind of rage and he exploded "why the fuck did you agree to come here? Couldn't you just fucking make up an excuse why you couldn't come?"

"What's wrong with you?" Zoro asked raising an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with me? I think that's my line! What's wrong with you? Coming to my apartment like that."

"What was I supposed to do? I was already hanging out with them, so there wasn't anything I was supposed to be doing. Or should I have said something like «Oh! I just remembered, I have to take a crap at my own apartment, I guess can't go to yours»?"

"It would be better than doing nothing at all, you moss for brains!"

"Oh! I'm sorry not everyone is as clever as you" Zoro said sarcastically, starting to get pissed off. "But just for the record, when I heard Ace saying you were coming home, I said I had to go so you wouldn't have the problem of meeting me" he practically spited the last words.

"Wow! Finally doing some… thing useful…" Sanji started this sentence in the same angry tone as before, but then his voice went softer and quieter and ended up as nothing but a whisper. That led to an uncomfortable silence between the two, the blond man looking at his now fascinating shoes and the green-haired man looking to the side, feeling too angry to face the other. It had passed at least a minute when Sanji mumbled "I'm sorry… And thank you, I guess, for leaving before I got there".

Zoro gazed at the blonde, who kept looking at his shoes, through the corner of his eyes. He knew how hard it was for Sanji to say the words "sorry" and "thank you" to him. He could barely remember those words coming from his mouth directed to him. And now he had said those two sentences one right after the other. He knew how proud Sanji was, so it must have meant that he was really regretting and he knew how unfair he was being. He sighed deeply.

"It doesn't matter…"

The Chef brought one hand up to his head and started rubbing his forehead, still looking down. "I was just stressing, because I didn't know how I should face you in the presence of all of them…"

"I said it doesn't matter" the swordsman step forward towards the other man, removed his hand from his forehead and brushed his lips on the now uncovered forehead. He then dropped his head until his own forehead met the blonde's shoulder. He could see, or more like feel, how this secrecy was breaking the thinner man, but after all he was the one who wanted it that way. Zoro was just the one who didn't care if it was secret or not. He was keeping it a secret because it was Sanji's wish.

"Wanna come over to my apartment?" Zoro suddenly asked.

"What?" the other exclaimed surprised.

"My apartment… you seem stressed, maybe you should come over and relax…"

"I told Ace I was coming home…"

"You're a grown up man. I'm pretty sure you can handle an excuse why you didn't make it."

Sanji felt a soft smile crossing his face.

**X x X x X**

In the next morning, Zoro woke up and he was sure some sound had wakened him up, but he just didn't know what. He felt something warm against his back. Sanji was sleeping by his side, holding an arm around his body. While he was smiling slightly he suddenly realized the sound that had wakened him up. Someone was knocking on his door. He sat with a sudden move and said "It's Wednesday, dammit!" getting a sleepy response from Sanji who mumbled "What?".

"Stay here. Don't leave this room." He ordered. Then he quickly put on some boxers and left to answer the door. The moment he opened the door, Usopp stormed in complaining.

"Geez… We were starting to wonder if you were home."

Nami gave him a raised eyebrow. "You could at least finish dressing. You don't greet your guests in boxers. Or were you still sleeping? It's freaking winter! How can you sleep only with your boxers on?"

"My bed is warm…" he replied sincerely.

"Look Zoro we got you two croissants!" Chopper said. "I also got two for me, but I already ate one."

"Yeah me too… You were taking too long to open the door. I could have eaten ten croissants while waiting for you to open!" Usopp said.

"But you ate it on our way here…" the younger boy stated confused.

"OI NAMI! Where the hell do you think you're going?" Zoro yelled in panic seeing the girl opening his bedroom's door.

"Getting you some clothes…" she said stepping in.

The green-haired man just froze, waiting for what would happen next. But nothing extraordinary happened. Nami just stepped out of the room saying:

"Geez… Your room is a mess. There are clothes thrown to every corner of the room. If I didn't know you, I would have said you just had a night of wild sex."

Zoro just swallowed before Nami threw some clothes at him, the jeans he was wearing last night and, his heart skipped a bit, Sanji's pink sweat-shirt.

"I didn't know you had pink clothes and I would never imagine that. Were you wearing that last night?"

"Yeah… I was wearing it under my other clothes" he lied. "It's not my color, but I guess I thought I should try it" he kept on lying, feeling his throat dry and dressing at the same time. He could sense Sanji's smell on that shirt and it somehow made him feel good. He didn't like the smell of tobacco, but after he met Sanji, he started to associate that smell to Sanji and he just couldn't hate that smell anymore. The blonde always had that scent attached to him blended with the smell of food, due to his job, and seafood was the smell that always seemed to linger on him the most. Zoro had learned to enjoy that mixture, tobacco and seafood, even though it could sound gross to some else. That combination of odors was never too strong. You could only smell it if you were really close to him, like Zoro had the chance to be many times.

"You're right about it not being your color…"

Nami's statement brought Zoro back from his wandering thoughts. If a pink shirt was suspicious, Zoro was pretty glad Sanji wasn't wearing a suit like he used to most of the time. Because if Nami found a used suit on Zoro's room, that would have been even more suspicious. He was pretty lucky.

"Maybe we should check if there isn't anyone hiding under his bed. It's hard to believe Zoro would buy a pink shirt." Usopp said.

Or maybe he wasn't that lucky.

"It must be his. The shirt is pink, but it's a man's shirt for sure" Chopper noted.

"No one said that it had to be necessarily a girl, hiding under his bed" Nami said giving Zoro a suspicious look that he tried his best to ignore.

"What? With Zoro's looks, there's always a girl checking him out. He must have dozens of them chasing him." The long-nosed boy said.

"Are you saying men go gay just because women don't want them?" Nami asked.

"No… That's not what I meant. But come on… Are you serious?"

"I mean if he is that good looking, then maybe even guys are attracted to him" she said calmly.

"You have a point there… But it doesn't matter, even if guys are attracted to Zoro, Zoro is not attracted to them."

"How do know?"

"OKAY! That's it!" Zoro yelled. That conversation was going way too far. "Can't a guy buy a pink shirt? It was just an experiment, okay? I see your point, I won't use or buy any more pink clothes. Just stop with this nonsense conversation…"

"Hey, no need to go to extremes. You can use or buy as many pink clothes you want" Usopp said.

"I don't want to."

"Then why did you buy that shirt?"

"I was experimenting! Damn it!"

"Okay, okay… You don't have to get all worked up."

After some time, he said goodbye to his friends, closed the door and ran to his bedroom in time to see Sanji crawling out from under the bed. He couldn't help it and he started laughing.

"Shut up shitty-marimo! You're lucky I was quick enough to get under the bed before Nami got in…" the cook got up and took a good look at the man at the door. A smirk slowly curled on his lips.

"Pink might not be your color, Nami's right, but you look hot in my clothes…" he said walking towards the swordsman. He stopped and his lips were just an inch away from the other's lips. Zoro leaned forward kissing the blond man softly.

"Good Morning stupid-cook… I saved you a croissant…" he said, wrapping an arm around the other's waist, as Sanji put his arms around his neck, kissing him again.

* * *

><p><em>So my original plot was going to be a shorter story, max 6 chapters... It was going to be shorter, simpler and less dramatic. Luffy was going to be the first one to find out about their relationship =P But then I decided to change it and it will probably have more than 10 chapters and I'm about to insert some drama (a tiny bit) xD<em>

_I hope you're enjoying it ^^_

_Reviews are appreciated and, like I said on chapter 2, if you detect some mistake I'm be glad if you pointed it out. =)_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

One morning, more than one week after, Sanji was about to leave home to go to work. He had the front door open and while he was dressing his long overcoat, he shouted goodbye to whoever would listen. However, when he just about to step out of his apartment, something grabbed his wrist, startling him.

"Wait!" Luffy had stepped out of the bathroom, which was right next to the front door of their apartment, with a towel around his waist dropping water all over the entrance's floor. Still holding the wrist of a wide open eyed Sanji (who was still a bit startled) he asked "Tonight… you don't work tonight, right?"

"No, I don't" he complied.

"Great! And are you free or do you have plans for tonight already?"

"No, I don't have any plans for tonight," the cook answered talking very slowly, not sure if he wanted to give away that information. "Why?"

"We're going to this bar tonight with Nami and her friends. Ace told me to tell Robin and Franky too, so Nami wouldn't feel bad for being the only girl. But you're the only one who hasn't met them yet, since when they were here you had to stay working so late that you slept at Zeff's house. So you should come!"

He knew he shouldn't have shared that information, but now Luffy already knew he was free that night. There was no way he could refuse that invitation without being suspicious. Even if he told Luffy later that he was sick and couldn't go, it would be suspicious because Sanji couldn't even remember the last time he was sick.

"Well… okay… I'll see you tonight then… And clean this before you leave. There's water everywhere," he said pointing to the floor.

The black-haired boy grinned at him widely. "I'm glad you can go!" he said, finally releasing Sanji's wrist.

"Yeah…" and with a last menacing look and gesturing to the water on the floor he added "And don't forget!" simply earning another big smile from his friend. He closed the door behind him and a slight smile crossed his lips. _'That idiot…'_ he thought realizing that even if he hadn't told Luffy he was free that night, he probably wouldn't have been able to refuse his invitation after seeing his happy face. It was hard to say no to him when he had this big, happy and hopeful smile on his face; Sanji had learned that over the years.

Later that day when he was getting out of the car with Luffy and Ace, his nervousness was growing bigger, but he was trying to suppress it. Despite his efforts for his friends not to notice, Ace gave him a curious and somehow worried look, but thankfully he didn't say a word.

All those worries from that night were back. How was he supposed to greet Zoro? He still hadn't decided and the bar's door was way too close. He should just say "hey". No… That would be awkward and stupid. Friendly should be the way. No way… since when was he friendly to Zoro? They walked into the bar and his mind seemed to have frozen, but at the same time it was working too fast. What should he do?

"There they are!" Luffy exclaimed, guiding them to a table.

"Hello everybody! This is Sanji, the Chef. Sanji, that's Usopp…" the cook greet the long-nosed boy with a quick bowing of his head, "that's Chopper… Brook… and that's Zoro".

"Hey shit-head" the words came out of his mouth before he could realize it, surprising himself. He saw a surprised look cross Zoro's face, but it lasted less than a second and quickly it changed into a smirk.

"Hey idiot-cook."

"Oh right! You two know each other!"

"You do?" Nami asked with her eyes wide open.

"Yeah… Sanji goes to the dojo where I work."

"Wait… You're his teacher?" Usopp asked having the same look on his face as Nami.

"No" he replied laughing. "He practices something else. I don't think he could handle swords."

"Be careful with what you say. I could slice you pretty good with my knives" the cook said with an evil smirk.

"Oh… you want to compare swords with kitchen knives? Sorry to disappoint you, but it's not the same."

"I never said it was. But after all my knives are prepared to slice meat, so like I said, I could slice you pretty good."

"Is that a challenge?"

"You wish. But unfortunately I don't fight with my cooking utensils. And you know I can beat you without using any weapons or even my hands."

"Beat me? I don't thi…"

"Okay! Okay! Let's stop this" Usopp interrupted. "You can finish this when you are in a wide space, so each one can prove his point, okay?"

"Yohohoho! They're funny… But I believe Usopp-san is right" said Brook.

"Oh Sanji, what do you practice?" Chopper asked curiously.

"Taekwondo."

"That sounds cool!" the younger boy said with his eyes shining.

"Sanji, Sanji, Sanji…" the engineer-to-be started. "I heard from your friend here" he gestured towards Ace, "that you're quite a good player at cards. But you know, back in my school there was a championship for all kinds of cards games and I won every category every year. Or should I say every year I participate. There was this year, that when no one else sign in to the tournament because they heard I was going to participate and it would be pointless, because they knew I was going to win it all. So, as the benevolent person I am, I didn't sign in that year to give a chance to other people, so they could know how victory tastes like…"

"What? Our school had that kind of tournament? I had no idea!" the little doctor-to-be said shocked.

Sanji had just met this Usopp guy, but he was sure he was lying. Did that little boy, who seemed to know the long-nosed boy for some years, actually believed him?

"I guess you can say I'm a good player, but I'm not sure I could match a champion" Sanji said playing along, "maybe I'm just lucky".

The rest of the night kept going pretty well. Usopp and Sanji had a card duel. Their partners changed each round, so everyone got a chance to play and to make sure none would win for having a better partner. The game ended up in a tie when Sanji announced his was tired of playing.

At some point of the night, Zoro was holding Sanji's shirt with his fist closed tight in a menacing gesture and Sanji had his hand on Zoro face and a foot on his stomach pushing him away, while they screamed insults at each other. The rest of the group was ignoring them, since they had been like that most of the time. Most of them couldn't even remember what had triggered this last fight, though some believe it might have been started when Zoro started mocking Sanji about the flirty way he was treating Nami and Robin and specially the barwoman.

While his mouth kept on spitting insults, Zoro's mind was thinking how glad he was Sanji was pushing him away. Before that, when they were shouting abusive names standing too close to each other, the green-haired man, without thinking, almost leaned and pressed a kiss on Sanji's lips. He had the habit of doing that, when they were having an argument with their faces this close to each other. Depending on the cook's mood it could lead to two different situations: the kiss could soften his behavior, putting an end to their discussion, leading to more kisses or it could provoke him even more, making him angrier and leading to a physical fight. Zoro liked both alternatives, so he never refrained himself from doing so whenever that idea crossed his mind.

However this time Zoro was able to prevent himself, but Sanji seemed to notice anyway and to avoid Zoro from having that reflex once again, he started pushing him away. Their argument was starting to draw too much attention from the other costumers to their table and Ace decided to sit between the two.

"Zoro, I have been curious about one thing, so please tell me: have you ever seen Sanji leaving your dojo with a girl?" the fireman asked putting an end to their discussion.

"Well, I haven't. But I assure it's not because he doesn't try. I believe the problem is that he tries too much… Some girls there get annoyed by his extensive flirting and the rest run away from him." Zoro replied with a somewhat evil smirk.

"Really? So he really doesn't have a girlfriend? I was so sure he had…" Ace said more to himself.

"Are you going to teach me how to conquer a girl's heart? Because I sure can't see your girlfriend anywhere." Sanji replied provoking.

"Oh believe me, the fact that I don't have a girlfriend is my own choice, if I wanted, there would be a bunch of them who would be ready to be my girlfriend."

"Getting cocky, are we? What makes you so sure that I don't remain single as my own choice as well?"

"I don't know… maybe because of your failed attempts at flirting with every girl you meet, but you just keep trying until you are successful."

"I was so sure he had a girlfriend…" Ace was so lost in his thoughts he didn't notice the intense and menacing looks the other two were shooting each other. "But I guess Zoro is right… After all I could never figure out why Sanji would hide that from me."

"He could be hiding it, so he can keep flirting with all the girls freely without your disapproval" the swordsman shot. Ace burst out laughing, but Sanji had an icy serious expression.

"You may insult me as much as you want, but you may NOT accuse me of being disloyal and a cheater, because I am not. If I had a girlfriend, I would make sure she would understand that if I ever flirted with other girls it wouldn't be because I wanted to have something with them, but it would be a harmless flirting simply because I believe every girl is a beautiful flower that should be treated with proper manners." Sanji's voice was quiet, but glacial and threatening.

"Harmless or not, that will cost you your relationship, because if you haven't figured it out yet I'll tell you: girls are jealous creatures…" Zoro said.

"Do not refer to ladies as creatures!" the Chef spoke angrily.

"Okay… calm down! Zoro, I know Sanji flirts a bit too much and that he might be a bit annoying sometimes, but believe me: any girl would be lucky to have Sanji. He treats his girl like she was a princess. She would never have any reason to be jealous."

"Thank you Ace! At least someone understands me… Anyway I'm tired of looking at you ugly face shitty-marimo. I'm going outside to smoke a cigarette."

When Sanji finished smoking, he decided to go to the restroom. When he stepped inside he found Zoro washing his hands. He walked towards him and leaned against a washbasin.

"It was very nice of you to embarrass me in front of my friend" he said sarcastically, his irritation showing on his voice. "Was your only purpose to embarrass me or is that really what you think of me? That I'm "single", or with you, because I'm unsuccessful with the ladies and that I would jump at any girl if I had the chance…"

Zoro didn't say anything; he just kept on washing his handing without even looking at Sanji. But Sanji knew he was listening and he just didn't know what to say, so he kept talking.

"I assure you that I'm "single" at choice too. If I wanted I could conquer a lady's heart, not any girl, I'm aware some of them are not very fond of me, but there are also a lot that I could be successful. But I choose to just harmlessly flirt with them because I believe they should be treated right and I'm a gentleman. I'll always hold a door for them, give them my coat if they're cold, help them when they need it, carry their bags and boxes so they don't get tired, say they're beautiful to make them feel better and flirt with them even if it's just to pump up their ego, because even if they find me annoying at that moment, they will later remember it as an appreciation for them and they will secretly enjoy it. That doesn't mean I want to get in their panties."

"You know some of them just use you for tasks they find unpleasant. They don't give you enough appreciation and treat you like a slave. They think you're just a hopeless fool." Zoro finally spoke looking at the sink.

"Maybe, but it is still my pleasure to help them."

Zoro gently warped his fingers around the blonde's wrist and slowly started pulling him closer. "You're an idiot…" and sighing deeply he said "I don't think you're a cheater and that unsuccessful with women, but a little bit yeah" he smiled faintly and so did Sanji "but our argument was lasting too long without me being able to put my hands on you to either beat the crap out of you or just kiss you to shut you up, so I started getting unnerved and ended up saying things I didn't mean to."

Sanji let Zoro pull him closer and nuzzle on his neck. He too had found it hard to be that much time near Zoro without being able to kiss him. Fighting and arguing was part of their relationship, but with just that it was incomplete. Before when he was sure Zoro was going to kiss him, even though he stopped himself in time, he had to gather all his willpower into pushing Zoro away, so it wouldn't happen again. But he too wanted that kiss and it was like a little part inside of him died when he pushed him away. But now they were alone there and he let Zoro kiss his neck up to his jaw and finally his lips. He kissed him back hungrily, placing his free hand on his face.

But before any of them was satisfied with the kiss the blonde heard, or maybe his sixth sense told him, someone approaching the restroom. He quickly pushed Zoro away and started washing hands. Before an astonished Zoro could ask anything the door opened and Luffy walked in.

"Sanji! Zoro! You're here! Usopp was saying Zoro fell asleep on the toilet and maybe Sanji died of lung cancer…"

"People don't spontaneously die of lung cancer. First they get sick, then they might die." Sanji explained. "And as you see I'm perfectly healthy."

"Oh… But they say people who smoke get lung cancer. You shouldn't smoke. I don't want you to die."

His friend's sincerity made his heart melt a bit. "Not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer."

"No… But it raises their chances." Zoro stated.

"Everyone makes mistakes that compromise their health. You," the cook pointed in Zoro's direction, "drink too much alcohol. I'm surprised you still have a liver. But most people make mistakes especially about their alimentation. Most people don't have a completely balanced alimentation that can lead to way too many health problems. For example, you Luffy eat too much meat. But I have a perfectly balanced and healthy alimentation, so I have plenty of room for other mistakes and cigarettes are my mistake and I love it." Sanji concluded this discussion, not wanting it to go any further.

* * *

><p><em>Funny fact: this last bathroom scene was going to be when Luffy discovered about Sanji and Zoro's relatioship in my original plot xP<em>

_I'm against smoking, so it was kinda hard to put myself in person who smokes shoes and write an excuse for smoking, because I sincerely can't see what good can come from smoking. I'm not even sure why I wrote that, but you know when you're writing and then the characters took over you and you suddenly aren't in charge of the dialogue anymore and you write things you weren't planning because the characters' will is stronger than you? That's what happened xD_

_I'm trying not to make the characters too OOC. I hope I'm being sucessful, though the fact that Zoro and Sanji are in a relationship is already a bit OOC xD But apart from that, let's hope I won't mess up too much =)_

_Once again reviews are appreciated and so is pointing out mistakes ^^_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

A month had passed and there was no longer need to distinguish Nami's friends from Luffy's friends. They were all friends and they kept hanging out often. Those encounters were always fun, but every time Sanji felt a tiny bit of him dying inside him. He was there chatting or arguing with Zoro, but without being able to touch him, feel his warmth or kiss him. It was unnerving, but he kept telling himself it shouldn't matter so much, that they would make it up when they were alone.

And the secrecy was killing him, though he didn't admit it. One day they were all at his house and Sanji went to the kitchen to get appetizers he had prepared and Zoro came in and gave him a quick kiss. Nami walked in one second later not suspecting a thing, but his heart was racing at the thought of almost getting discovered. And when, some other day, Usopp suggested as a joke that they looked like a couple arguing, he immediately started sweating and his heart almost shoot out of his chest. He was actually getting a bit paranoid. Every time he was alone with Zoro, he would always look around to check if any of his friends would happen to pass by them and see them together. And it was getting harder to come up with excuses to where he was going or why was he so late every time he wanted to meet him.

And Ace hadn't given up on the idea that Sanji had a girlfriend yet, though his conversation with Zoro. From time to time he would try to catch Sanji off guard with a question, but he never got the answer he wanted. He was starting to give up, at least from questioning him and the blond man just wished it wasn't because he decided to investigate himself.

One morning, he was calmly preparing some pancakes. Cooking was the only time he could get away from that stress and he could actually relax. It was like getting into a comforting bubble where none of those problems could reach him. He was just Sanji, the Sous-chef, without any personal problems. His only problems were to make sure his food was delicious and ready on time. Breakfast at Baratie was usually a calm part of the day, when compared with lunch and dinner that were madness. Suddenly he heard a sweet voice calling him.

"Good morning Sanji-san."

He turned around to see Robin stepping inside the restaurant's kitchen. "Good morning Robin-chan! It's so good to see you here! It's not every day that I have a beautiful flower visiting me. To what do I owe the pleasure?" he spoke enthusiastically.

"I don't have classes to teach this morning and I have already done everything I had to do. So before I offer my help to one of my colleges, I decided I should pay you a visit."

"I feel honored. Would you like something? Maybe coffee and a pancake?"

"Just coffee would be great. Thank you very much."

"So how have you been, Robin-chan?" he asked while serving her coffee and taking her to a table at the corner of the kitchen, while asking someone to cover him for some minutes.

"I have been pretty well. My students have been making me proud, not counting some exceptions of course."

"I'm sure it's because they have such an amazing teacher."

"Thank you. And how have you been, Sanji-san?"

"Fine… I've been just fine. Did you read the last critique about this restaurant?"

"I did. You must be very happy."

"I am. Old man Zeff must be so proud!"

"I'm sure he is."

There was a short silence and then Robin asked "Sanji-san, has something been worrying you lately?"

Sanji was surprised by that question, but quickly recovered replying "No, I have no reasons to worry about. Why would you say that?"

"I talked with Ace-san the other day. He's worried about you. He says you have been more stressed and distant and I have to agree. There seems to be something bothering your mind and as your friends I and Ace worry about you."

"That's sweet of you, Robin-chan. But I'm fine, there's nothing bothering me. No need to worry. I love this job, but you know it can be a bit stressing, and now with Baratie's reputation growing, more people come, which means more stress."

"Sanji… I and Ace, even more times than me, have seen you stressed because of your job many times and this is not it. Ace cares deeply for you and he's worried. He thinks you're hiding something from him and I believe it is hurting him a bit."

Hearing that his friend was worrying and at the same time hurting because of him pained him. He throat was dry, but he managed to say "he has nothing to worry about. I'm fine and I'm…"

"Sanji" she cut "Please do not lie to me. I don't want you to tell me if you don't want to, but please don't lie. There clearly is something bothering you and the more you keep it to yourself the worst it will be for you. Ace and Luffy are great friends you can trust. And I'm sure Ace would love to hear you and help you, even if it's just to get it out of your chest. I'm just saying this out of concern."

He looked down, a lump in his throat preventing him to talk right away. He couldn't lie to a lady, especially when she requested him not to lie. He finally managed to speak "I can't. I can't tell them. I'm sorry for worrying you. You shouldn't worry about me. If you speak to Ace again, please tell him I'm fine, I don't want him to worry either."

"So you want me to lie to him."

"No! No… I am truly fine. I am…" He said smiling. Robin gave him an intense and penetrating look that was so usual about her, but never less intimidating. "I have just a few things that have been stressing me, but I'm fine. My job is great, I have awesome friends and a…" he interrupted himself and she gave him a curious look. "And a beautiful lady that worries about me. What else could I wish for?"

She was sure that was not what he was going to say, but decided not to push it. "Well if you say so. But think about what I said. Getting it off your chest could really help you. It's not healthy the way you keep it right now."

"Thank you for your concern Robin-chan, but you shouldn't" he said smiling.

"Well I have to go now. Thank you for your coffee. It was delicious. Have a good day, Sanji-san." She said with a soft smile.

"Have a nice day Robin-chan."

**X x X x X**

_Knock. Knock._

"Oh wait… Someone's at my door" Zoro informed Sanji, who was on the other end of the line. Putting his mobile phone on the little coffee table in front of his couch, he walked towards his door and opened it.

"Ah Nami… What do you want?"

"How rude… There is nothing I need… well maybe just your company" she said releasing a sad sigh that made Zoro raise his eyebrow. She walked forward and let herself fall down on his couch. He sat next to her, suspicious.

"Something's wrong?"

"Well… I and Luffy had a fight… We broke up." She informed sadly.

Sanji, who was reading a book, but still kept his phone on his ear, raised both his eyebrows in surprise at hearing Nami announcing that. He hadn't seen Luffy when he got home, he was probably in his room or bathroom and Sanji went straight to his own room. He felt an urge to go find Luffy to see if he was okay, but he let himself be, curious to hear the rest of the conversation.

"You broke up? Is that one of those tiny fights that in a few days you'll be back together?" he had seen many couples break up and get back together days after and Nami, being hotheaded as she was, was the type of girl who would do that.

"No… I don't believe so. It's definite break up. It's over forever…" she said dramatically.

"Oh… I'm sorry about that…" Zoro didn't know what to say. Why did Nami come to him? Chopper and Usopp would make a better job at comforting her. He wasn't the type of person that would have kind and reassuring words ready for this kind of situations. "Why did you fight with him?"

"I don't want to talk about it" she said pouting. There was a long silence, because Zoro didn't know what else to say. Nami finally broke the silence.

"You know Zoro… this made me think… Luffy is not the man for me."

Sanji's book was long forgotten and he was frozen, feeling guilty about overhearing this conversation, especially because they were talking about his best friend who, he thought feeling his heart break, was probably devastated. However he couldn't click the red button or put his phone down.

"And neither are all this jerks around me. So I realized the good men that have always been with me." Zoro was really feeling this conversation was being a bit suspicious. He wasn't sure if he liked it. He stayed silent absorbing her words and trying to understand where she wanted to get to. She moved closer to him and rested a hand on his arm. "Zoro…" his name came out of her mouth as a purr that sent chills up Zoro's spine. But those chills were consequence of him being terrified. "Zoro… I realized that maybe you are a good man for me" her voice had changed into a seductive tone and the swordsman couldn't remember of ever being more horrified than this moment.

Sanji on the other hand was chocked. He couldn't be hearing right! Beautiful Nami-san… Beautiful Nami-san who had just broken up with his best friend was hitting on Zoro. Beautiful and lovely Nami-san was hitting on _his_ Zoro. His brain stopped.

Nami was getting closer and Zoro could feel cold sweat on his forehead, but he chose to remain calm and say "what are you talking about?"

"Don't tell me you have never thought about it. You and me, it could be perfect."

"Believe me! It would be far from perfect."

"Come on… at least give it a try. You're single, aren't you? So there's no problem."

"You have got to be kidding me. You just got out of a relationship and you're already diving into another one and with your best friend!" Zoro was starting to lose his patience.

"That relationship made me realized what I had in front of me all the time… And I'm not diving into another one. I just think we should try it. Test our chemistry." Her face was now too close and he instinctively pushed his head back creating more space between the two.

"You're mad, woman! We can't do that! That would kill our friendship!" Whatever that crazy woman was thinking, Zoro had to stop her. No matter how cute and attractive she was, Zoro had never looked at her that way. She was just her best friend and he felt no desire towards her. All his desire was focused on someone else.

"Of course we can. It wouldn't kill our friendship. It's just a test… that could go right."

Sanji's brains were about to explode. He wanted to scream, he wanted to scream loud enough for them to hear him from that tiny device. But he didn't. He remained still with his phone glued to his ear and his heart hammering in his chest.

"Or it could go wrong!" the green-haired man protested. Was she on drugs? Why the hell was she suggesting something like this all of the sudden?

"If it goes wrong and it doesn't work out, we just resume to our lives being best friends as usual. Trust me; no harm will come from this test."

"No! We can't!" he said with a firm voice. Breaking up with Luffy must have traumatized her.

"Come on. Don't be a sissy!"

"We can't." Zoro repeated shaking his head. Any other man would have surrendered to Nami's charm when she willingly offering herself. But not Zoro. Not Zoro who just thought of her as a friend. Not Zoro who already had someone.

"Of course we can." Her face was getting closer to his. "Destroying our friendship is not a good reason, because I assure you it won't happen. So you better give me a better reason why we can't."

"Because I'm in love with someone else!" Zoro blurted out suddenly getting up.

Sanji impulsively clicked the red button at hearing this, putting an end to the call. His heart was pounding so fast and so hard he feared it would open a hole in his chest. Could be Zoro talking about him? Because they sure have never described their feelings for each other as love before. Did he actually feel that way? That thought scared him, but at the same time it also made him a tiny happy.

Zoro felt his cheeks heat when he realized what he just said. Nami had her eyes wide open and her jaw dropped. However she quickly recovered and her face lit up into a big smile.

"I knew it! You're dating someone, aren't you? I can't believe you used the words «I'm in love». I thought you would say «I'm in a relationship with someone else». Unless that person doesn't love you back. But that wouldn't make much sense, because that way you would be free to be with other people. Just admit it: you're dating someone!" Nami was euphoric talking too fast. Her behavior was confusing him comparing to her previous actions.

"W-what is happening here? Why are you so happy I rejected you?"

"I was faking… Of course I don't want to date you; I just wanted to know how you would react. And I got the confession I wanted from you. Even more than I wanted actually!" she said overjoyed.

Realization suddenly hit Zoro with a violent craving to cutting her throat, that he suppressed as he didn't actually want to harm his friend. "You witch!" he yelled angrily. "How could you use such a low trick?"

"If you're looking for an apology, you won't get it because I'm not even sorry. My method was super effective." She said smirking.

The swordsman's face was getting redder as his rage grew inside him. He wanted to call her so many names and insults, but with shaking fists hanging by the side of this body he took a deep breath and asked something else that was bothering him "what about Luffy?"

"Oh! That was a lie too. We didn't break up. We're perfectly fine." She replied smiling happily. "And now that you have admitted it, you have to tell me who is that person!"

"I didn't admit a damn thing. I just said that to shut you up. Just like you, I was lying."

"I'm not stupid Zoro. I won't buy that excuse. Just deal with the fact that you just told me you're in love with someone. The question is: are you dating that person?"

Zoro let himself fall on the couch with a sigh. What was the point of lying to Nami after this? It was his own fault he lost control and ended up saying those words. "Yes… I'm dating that person. Don't ask me anything else."

"I knew it! I was so right! For how long?" she asked curiously.

"Are you deaf? I said don't ask me anything else." He growled.

"I need to know that! It won't harm you…" she said with an innocent look.

He glanced at her and answered rolling his eyes "Three or four months… I don't know."

"Oh! So when I suggested before you were dating someone, I was right!" Zoro could see satisfaction coming out of her pores for being right. "Come on Zoro you have to tell me more… please!"

"Stop it evil witch. I won't tell you a damn thing."

"Why not? I'm your best friend, am I not? Just tell me. I won't tell anyone!"

"Why should I trust you after what you just did?"

"Come on. Don't tell me you're angry. I just used my ways to find out what you refused to tell me, even though I, as your best friend, have the right to know."

"Has it crossed your mind that maybe I don't want you know a damn thing about my personal life? You don't have the right to know anything" he said aggressively. He was still pissed at her. He saw a hurting look crossing her face, while she tried to suppress a pout.

"I just thought we shouldn't keep secrets from each other." She looked down, pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged her own knees. That euphoria was completely gone. Zoro hated to see that defeated look on his friend. He knew she could be using that look to manipulate him, but he felt that these were Nami's true feelings. He sighed.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you anything else. It's not that I want to keep secrets from you, but that person doesn't want me to tell anyone." He said with a softer voice.

"So that means I know that person or it wouldn't make a difference if I knew or not." She said smiling softly, but her voice was weaker.

'_Damn you Nami for always taking the right conclusions'_ Zoro thought. He couldn't think of any argument to counter that so he just said "Who knows… But I won't tell you if you're right or wrong."

"Of course I'm right. If I wasn't, you wouldn't have a problem to tell me I don't know that person, because that would actually favor you, since I could never guess that person."

Oh how he hated her sometimes! "Believe what you want" he said keeping his face neutral.

There was a long silence, before she talked again "I just realized we don't have many female acquaintances in common. I can't remember any other besides Robin-sensei and Kaya. But since Robin-sensei is married and Kaya is Usopp's girlfriend, so those two are out of question. Oh and I believe you met my friend Vivi. But she's too young for you and I don't think you two ever talked that much. Unless you're talking about that pizza girl or a waitress from that fast-food restaurant…" a quick laugh from Zoro told her that possibility was wrong. "So that and the fact that you have been referring as «that person» instead of «she» or «her» makes me believe you're dating a man."

She saw Zoro's muscles tense_. 'Bull's eye!'_

"Like I said: believe what you want."

"I just can't imagine who that person could be from all the men we know" she said ignoring his last statement.

Zoro called Sanji later, after Nami was gone and Sanji told him he heard their conversation enough to realize that Nami was hitting on him. However he didn't admit to hear the last sentence he heard Zoro say. The swordsman explained him it was only a scheme and Nami wasn't hitting him for real and she was still dating Luffy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Nami lives somewhere around here, right?" Sanji asked. He was at Zoro's apartment preparing dinner.

"Yeah… She lives in that grey building next to mine."

"Hmm… Do you think she could have seen us?"

"What do you mean?"

"If she looked from her window, could she have seen us getting inside your building?"

"Probably… But I doubt she has the habit of looking through her window. She's probably studying right now," Zoro answered not paying too much attention.

Sanji bit his lip and stated "I shouldn't have come. What if she saw us?"

"You're too paranoid. She knows we're friends. What's wrong about going to your friend's house?" Zoro said rolling his eyes.

"We are not supposed to be that close. And after your conversation with Nami, if she saw us, it would raise too many suspicions." The cook turned around to face him for a few seconds before going back to prepare their meal.

"Stop being so paranoid! Relax a bit from once in a while. At least now that we are alone and none of them is around." The green-haired man advised him, leaning against the counter next to Sanji.

"How can I relax, when Nami does what she did to get that kind of information from you?"

"That's just the way Nami is. Nami should be my problem not yours. She doesn't know that much. And believe me, you would probably be the last person she would think of."

"But if she saw me going to your apartment, just the two of us, it would change her way of thinking! Don't you think, moss head?"

Once again Zoro rolled his eyes. "And you think Nami is spying on me or something? She has better things to do…"

"And it's not just Nami. Ace and Robin are worried and want to know what's wrong with me… It's getting harder to lie to them."

"If you didn't act so paranoid, you wouldn't be so stressed and they wouldn't be worried. That's why I tell you to relax." Zoro tried to be patient, but his tone was starting to raise.

"I can't relax! Just the thought of them finding out gives me the chills!" Sanji said through his teeth.

"They'll have to know sooner or later."

"What?" Sanji snapped his head to face Zoro.

"You once said «I'm not ready yet», that implies that you'll be ready one day. If you're planning to keep it this way forever, you might as well just kill yourself." The swordsman said starting to lose his temper.

"Excuse me?"

"This is killing you! I'm surprised you can do your job right. Some days I just feel like breaking your neck to put an end to your paranoia and suffering. If you keep it like this you're going to go mental. And when that happens I'll just tell you «I warned you» and leave you at a mental hospital."

"YES! I'm tired of this secrecy! I'm tired of lying to my friends! I'm tired of pretending we're just friends! But it's the only fucking way!" Sanji exploded.

"It's not the only way. We can stop pretending. They're our friends, it's not like they'll judge us." Zoro said raising his voice.

"No! No…" Sanji said shaking his head. "We can't stop pretending! I don't think I'll ever be ready to tell them."

"Then I only see one solution… We make the pretending the truth!" The swordsman said spitting those words.

"What do you mean?" the blonde asked confused starting to put the prepared food on a plate.

"I mean us being just two friends who insult each other a lot should become the truth. That way we wouldn't be pretending anymore."

There was a long silence during which Sanji kept on arranging the food on the plate, since the presentation was always an important factor to Sanji. Zoro just observed him knowing he was thinking about his suggestion. "Okay… I guess you're right. It's over then," the cook finally said, his voice too calm to Zoro's liking. He put the plate on the kitchen table saying "Have a nice meal marimo" and he stepped out of the kitchen, grabbed his coat and left.

It was like a knife had pierced the green-haired man's heart. He felt like throwing that plate through a wall, but he knew that food was too delicious to be wasted. And Sanji would probably come back inside to kick his ass for wasting food. He knew he was the one who suggested it, but he wasn't expecting Sanji to agree with it.

But maybe this was the right thing to do. This would put an end to their problems and they would have nothing to worry about anymore. Life would be definitely simpler. They could go back to being happy. Not that Zoro was unhappy before. No, he considered himself quite happy actually, it just annoyed him a bit to see Sanji so stressed most of the time. But what was done was done and he could be happy or at least satisfied with his life without Sanji playing a big role in it. At least that's what he told himself, after all he had lived most of his life without knowing the blonde.

**X x X x X**

Sanji spent his way home thinking about his recent decision. It was the right decision, right? Yes, it had to be. Then why was he so unsure? With this all his problems were gone. No more stress, no more excuses, no more pretending, no more lying. He'll be back to being normal. What was he thinking getting involved with a man in the first place? But it felt so right when he was with Zoro. No, he shouldn't be thinking that. He was better off this way. But still his heart felt tight. Yes, it wasn't going to be easy to get used to being just friends with Zoro, but he could do that. He had to. It was the best for everyone.

He opened his apartment's door to find a surprised Ace, who was just leaving the bathroom, looking at him.

"Weren't you supposed to be out for dinner?"

"Yeah… change of plans…"

"Sanji? You're home?" Luffy came running with a smile from ear to ear.

"Yes" he replied smiling back at the younger boy. "So what do you want for dinner Luffy?"

"MEAT!"

Why did he even ask? "I'll see what I can do with what we have." He said as he walked towards the kitchen. Ace followed him.

"What about me? Don't I have a saying in this?"

"You'll eat whatever I put in front of you."

"So will Luffy!" Ace stated defensive.

"It's true. But the lack of meat will make him complain."

Ace sat down and observed his friend doing his job for around five minutes. Then he decided to ask: "Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"You're quiet."

"I'm working."

"You look sad." The fireman insisted.

"Everyone has their ups and downs."

"Stop stating the obvious!" the dark-haired man said a bit annoyed. "If today is a down day, what's the reason?"

"Nothing particular…"

Rolling his eyes, Ace got up and leaned against the counter next to Sanji so he could see his face. "Remember when, around a month and a half or two months, I was so sure you had a girlfriend because you looked so happy? What happened to that Sanji? I miss happy Sanji. Have you been having troubles with her?"

With a dark aura emanating from him, Sanji stabbed the onion he was cutting with an abrupt move startling Ace. "Stop with that girlfriend crap. I don't have a girlfriend!"

Ace got startled and a bit scared by his friend's aggressive move. "Okay, I'm sorry. What I meant was that we looked happy before and then that happiness started to disappear and little by little you turned into this stressful person. You know how Luffy is bit childish and he can sometimes be unaware of what's happening around him. But even he noticed your change and he too is worried. We're all worried actually. And today I can't feel those stressing vibes that have become so common about you. They're gone and I thought it would be a good thing. But I look at you and all I can think is that you look sad."

Sanji sighed. "Look, today was a bad day, but I promise you from now on all that stress will be gone and I'm going back to normal, okay? So don't worry about me."

Ace rested his hand on Sanji's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "You can talk to me, tell me what's wrong."

"I prefer not to talk about it and forget it. I'll be fine from now on."

The fireman gave him a worried look, but he didn't insist.

**X x X x X**

"Ah Hello Nami!" Luffy greeted as he opened the door. "I'm sorry, I got home just a few minutes ago, I'm going to take a quick shower, don't you mind?"

"No. Go ahead." She said after giving him a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Okay. Ace is over there."

Nami walked towards Ace, who was sitting on the couch reading a magazine. "Hello Ace!"

"Nami! Good to see you!" he said standing up to greet her.

"What are you reading?" she asked while they both sat down.

"I'm just checking which movies are currently at the cinema. I want to take Sanji to watch a movie."

"You're taking Sanji to the cinema?" she asked surprised.

Ace laughed and explained "I want to take him to see a good comedy. He's been a bit down lately. I think he needs some good laughs."

"What's wrong with him?"

"I have no idea. He won't tell me. But he's been too quiet lately. He almost only speaks when it's necessary. Not very like him. Luffy seems to be the only one who can make him truly smile, though he's also the person who can make him really mad. All his other smiles look fake or weak. He looks sad and depressed most of the time. The only time he doesn't look like that is when he's cooking, because Sanji can't be unhappy when he's cooking."

"I haven't seen him lately. But you should take Zoro with you too."

"Zoro?" Ace asked surprised.

"Yes… He was never a cheerful person, but lately he looks too apathetic. He doesn't laugh at anyone's joke, nor gets he annoyed by it. He's just like uninterested about everything. He doesn't get angry, but he doesn't get happy or excited either. He's just indifferent. He can be like that sometimes. But all the time is just creepy!"

"Wow this must be some kind of unhappiness virus." Ace joked and Nami chuckled lightly.

"You know… about a week ago I got him to confess me he was dating someone."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but two days after he started acting like this. I ended up asking him and he told they broke up. But he said it with such an indifferent tone on his voice like he was talking about someone else and not himself."

"Maybe he's hurting, but he doesn't know how to deal with it, so he closes his feelings and treats the situation with indifference," the dark-haired man suggested.

"That's what I thought…" Nami sighed.

"I also thought Sanji's behavior was because of a girl, but when I suggested it, I think I was lucky he stabbed an onion and not me. It was scary! He told me he doesn't have a girlfriend."

"Maybe Sanji's problem is that he doesn't have a girlfriend." She suggested.

"You think?" Ace asked raising an eyebrow.

"Knowing him and his constant flirting, I would say it is possible."

"Nami! I'm ready!" Luffy called.

"Well, see you Ace! And good luck cheering Sanji up."

"See you Nami. And have fun both of you!" the older brother said smiling.

**X x X x X**

Ace got home around midnight exhausted. He found Sanji sitting on the couch watching a movie with Luffy sleeping on his shoulder with a basket half full of popcorn on his lap.

"Luffy's paying too much attention to that movie," he commented sarcastically.

Sanji turn his head to face him. "He doesn't care about the movie; he just wanted to eat my popcorn."

"I'm not surprised."

"He still puts one in his mouth from time to time, though he's sleeping." The cook said looking tenderly to the sleeping face on his shoulder

"I bet he's dreaming about a land made of popcorn." The fireman said sitting next to Sanji.

"How was it? Everything under control?"

"Yes. We were able to save everyone and extinguish the fire completely. There was this woman who refused to leave before she found her kid. She eventually found him, but they were surrounded by fire, so they couldn't get out. Thankfully we were able to rescue them. The woman was a bit intoxicated by the smoke, but the doctors said she'll be fine soon."

"Good to hear. One hell of a night, huh?"

"Literally!" Ace exclaimed. "But changing subjects… Guess who I met today!"

"Don't make me think too hard this late. Just tell me."

"Keimi! Do you remember my friend Keimi?" the dark-haired boy said enthusiastically.

"That gorgeous girl with green hair?"

"Yes! That one! It's been a while since I last saw her. She's still the same. She's so funny and she still has the best facial expressions ever! But the best thing is she asked me about you!"

"Really? I feel flattered."

"You should… I think you two should go on date. She looked interested. You're single and so is she. And she's an amazing girl."

"I know she is, that's I wonder why don't you try your luck yourself."

"No, no, no… I know Keimi since we were this tiny. Even if I don't see her much nowadays I still see her as a little sister. And I'm sure she feels the same way about me. But you two could work pretty well, believe me. I couldn't get better guy for my little sister!"

"So you want to set me on a date?" Sanji wasn't sure it was a good idea, but he should risk it. He had to move forward eventually and this was a good chance.

"Yes. What do you say?"

"I don't think I have anything to lose."

"Okay, it's settled then. I'll call her tomorrow," Ace said with a big smile.

* * *

><p><em>I'm not very happy with this chapter = Hopefully next one will be better..._

_I'm thinking of posting an extra chapter, next time I update, about how Zoro and Sanji met. What do you think? Would you like that?_

_As you may have noticed this world is basicly like ours, but with some differences, for example: having naturally green or blue hair is perfectly normal._


	8. Extra Chapter: Six months ago

**Extra Chapter - Six months ago**

Zoro had finished his last class of the day at the dojo and after all his students had left and he checked if everything was on its place, he stepped out of the room. On his way out, he passed near a room of another modality and overheard a conversation.

"I was very impressed! Are you sure this is the first time you practice martial arts?" he heard Taekwondo's sensei saying.

"Well, officially yes. But I had an old man who taught me how to fight when I was younger," a voice Zoro never heard before said. Taking a quick glace as he passed the door, he saw the back of a blond head.

"You put on quite a show! Some moves might not be very appropriate for Taekwondo, but I think you'll learn fast."

Damn it! Zoro noticed he forgot his watch. He turned around to go back and kept on hearing the conversation. He wasn't interested, but it was not like he could turn off his audition.

"I noticed you practically only used your legs to attack. I would like to see you use your arms as well," the familiar voice continued.

"Well you see… the man who taught me how to fight is a Chef and so am I. So he has this policy about only using his legs, because his hands are too precious for his cooking. It's a way of protecting our hands from any harm. I'll try to use my hands a bit more from now on, but I'll still use my legs as my main offence."

After retrieving his forgotten watch, Zoro headed out again. He was thirsty, so he took his bottle of water out of his bag and took a gulp. Before he could put the lid back on the bottle, he ran in something. Or maybe someone…

"Fuck! Watch where you're going you asshole!" the blonde he had heard before was stepping out of Taekwondo's class room the moment he was passing that same room's door, so they ran into each other. Zoro would normally apologize, but that guy's bitching made him not want to.

"Maybe before exiting a door, you should look if someone's passing by!" he said in the same accusing tone. Then he noticed the other wasn't even looking at him. He had his arms wide open and his hands were doing these rapid and stiff movements like he was trying to dry them. He was looking down at his own chest. In that moment Zoro noticed the guy was using a suit and his dress shirt and tie were all wet. He realized his bottle of water was still open and that was the reason.

"You're pretty lucky this is just water. If it wasn't …" the man spoke angrily and looked up facing the green-haired man in front of him. Now that Zoro was able to see his face, he noticed a particular detail. That guy's eyebrow (singular, because his other eye was covered by a curtain of blond hair) had the weirdest shape he had ever seen. It somehow curled into a swirl at the end.

"If it wasn't you would do what, curlicue?" Zoro provoked smirking. He immediately saw the bond man's eye narrowing in irritation.

"I would fucking kick your ass, you shitty-marimo!"

Though the insult directed to him, Zoro let out a mocking chuckle. He took a good look at the man in front of him. The guy was basically his height, but he was so skinny Zoro had the feeling he could break him in two easily enough. The guy certainly lacked the strength. Did he actually think he could kick his ass?

"Oh! So you think you can defeat me?" he asked mockingly. However, before he could come up with an insult to finish that sarcastic question, he was sent flying with a sharp pain on his stomach and he flew until his back met the closest wall. His fell down on his ass, his hand instinctively over his abdomen where it hurt. That crazy blonde had just kicked him! And pretty hard! How the hell was Zoro supposed to guess those skinny legs held so much power? He could barely believe it.

The man was standing at the same spot, looking calmer with his hands on his pockets. "Do you still believe that's not possible moss-head?"

"You swirly bastard!" Zoro growled as a rage took over his body and he got up in a quick move launching himself towards the irritating blonde. However the other man kept on dodging or blocking his attacks with his legs, his hands not leaving his pockets. Then he shot a successful kick to Zoro's side.

"I see you're a swordsman," the blonde said pointing at Zoro's swords that rested on the floor next to his bag. "If you want at least a chance at beating me, you better go get one of those swords."

Zoro frown at being ordered by that bastard, but he knew it was true. He had underestimated him once and he wasn't going to do that mistake again. He picked up two of his swords. That dartboard eyebrow bastard was going to get it!

"Oh! Two swords? That ought to be interesting," the blond man said smirking. And not one second more was wasted and they restarted fighting. This time Zoro was not in disadvantage. None of them was. They were at the same level. The other man eventually had to remove his hands from his pockets for better balance, but he kept using only his feet to attack. Zoro was quite impressed, not only by that guy's technique and the fact that he only used his legs, but also by the fact he would dodge or block his sword attacks so at ease, though he was unarmed. Zoro actually started wondering if the guy was unaware that swords are sharp and could cut him. That idiot was so at ease every time he blocked one of Zoro's attacks that Zoro was sure the guy had no idea how real and sharp those swords were.

After some minutes that fight was still going nowhere. None of them was wining, none of them was losing. It only ended when Taekwondo's sensei appeared and stop them.

**X x X x X**

Zeff gave Sanji a two hours break that day between lunch and dinner and Sanji was enjoying that break at the city's park. He was just sitting on a bench and relaxing, smoking his cigarette and enjoying the light breeze and the view. It was beginning of September and the weather was still very warm. There was no sign that summer would end soon. Oh and Sanji loved summer! Not because of the heat. No… He didn't like those too hot days. The reason he liked summer so much was right in front of him, playing volleyball. Four beautiful girls were wearing very short shorts and tops that let most of their flat bellies uncovered, especially when they jumped to hit the ball. Summer meant beautiful ladies with fewer clothes on and those four were perfect examples. They all had such wonderful bodies. Sanji didn't grow tired of looking at them. Those curves making them look like goddesses…

"Do you need a bib, ero-curlicue?" Sanji's line of thought was cut by those words. He looked to where that voice came from and saw that green-haired bastard he had fought two days ago at the dojo standing next to him. Shit! Why did he have to be disturbed at such peaceful time by this idiot?

"Shut up, shitty-marimo. What the hell are you doing here?" he said annoyed.

"As far as I know this is a public place. Anyone can be here."

"Then try being a little more distant from where I am…"

Zoro smirked having this sudden wish to annoy the blonde, so he sat next to him. Sanji did an irritated sound with his tongue that made Zoro smile in triumph. The blonde took a drag from his cigarette and then said "get lost, moss head".

"Like you could order me around, dartboard!"

"Why are you even here? Did you come to pay your family a visit?" Sanji asked in a mocking tone while pointing to the grass.

"Shut it! This is just my way home. I live over there," Zoro replied pointing to a grayish-green building not far from there, not sure why the hell he was sharing that information with a guy he met two days ago and he still didn't know his name.

"Then go. And try not to get lost," Sanji said sarcastically. He knew it wasn't possible for any human to get lost between that spot they were sitting and that building.

However the green-haired guy tensed at hearing this. There was no way that blonde could know about his bad sense of direction, it was just a joke. But it made his wish to annoy the blonde grew, so he didn't move.

"I told you already, you can't order me around," he said smirking.

The blonde blew out the smoke into the sky and then said "if you're looking for a fight or something, this is not the right moment. I have to go back to work in half an hour."

"What do you do?"

"I'm cook. I work at a restaurant."

Oh right… Zoro had heard him say that to his sensei. That was also the reason why he fought with his feet only. And then suddenly a question came to his mind and he couldn't stop himself from saying it out loud.

"Aren't you afraid?"

Sanji snapped his head to the side to face the green-haired man. "Afraid of what?" he asked confused.

"I mean… when we were fighting, weren't you afraid of my swords? You were unarmed, while I was using two swords."

"I'm not afraid of any shitty swords…"

Zoro rolled his eyes. "What I mean is normal people are a bit afraid of fighting a man with swords when they don't have a single weapon. I was a bit impressed you could stop my swords the way you did, but one mistake from you or a lucky shot from me and I could have cut you," Zoro said, cursing himself for admitting he was impressed.

"I've been through scarier shit when I was a kid," the blonde replied.

"Oh?"

"The man who taught me how to fight is a cook too. He actually owns the restaurant I work at. So when I was a kid he decided to sharp some of his old knives he didn't use anymore for the only purpose of throwing them at me while he was training me. He tied my hands behind my back and made me either dodge the knives or block them with my feet."

Zoro widened his eyes "T-that's crazy!"

"That's a good word to describe that old man. But the worst part was that at the beginning I would only dodge, so he beat the crap out of me saying I had to block some of them. Needless to say I was more afraid of him than of those knives, so I did as he told me."

Zoro was shocked. Throwing knives at kid? He was pretty sure if the police have heard about this that man would probably be in jail. But what happened next surprised him even more than that crazy story. The blonde turn his head to face him and, his cigarette trapped between his teeth, he gave Zoro an enormous and sincere smile and then said "So I'm not afraid of blades. Not after that".

Zoro had no idea that crappy blond could even smile like that. He thought he was only capable of smirking mockingly. He turned his face away refocusing.

"Tch… You'll learn that my swords are much scarier than kitchen knives flying at you."

"I doubt that… But you're free to try," the cook said smirking before blowing out some smoke.

"Well, I'm going home," Zoro said getting up.

"See you marimo."

Irritated, the swordsman was about to yell "_I have a name!_" but…

"The name is Zoro…" he said.

The cook's eye widened but then he just gave him another honest smile and said "Mine's Sanji".

**X x X x X**

From that day on, going to the dojo started being the most interesting thing on Zoro's day-to-day's life. Specially the days Sanji was there. Their encounter there would always end up in a fight, except for those days one of them was in a hurry. Zoro loved those fights, they were so challenging and he could fight until his energy drop out. It's been a while since he had fought an adversary that would put up a good fight. Most of the time it would end up in a tie, when it didn't it was usually because one of them was tired for some reason and that would lead to his defeat. All it took was an exchange of insults and they would be at each other's face yelling threats until the fight broke up. Zoro felt so alive! That blonde pissed him off so much, but he couldn't stand when the cook was away from the dojo too many days. He needed those spars.

He eventually ended up knowing more about Sanji. And there was one thing he learned about him that pissed him off even more than usual: his idiotic flirting attitude towards every cute girl he met. He acted like a complete fool around girls and it annoyed Zoro to an extend he just couldn't help but roll his eyes or say some mocking words every time that happened. And why wouldn't he do that when every time he did, the blonde would snap his attention to him with angry threats and a promise of a fierce fight hanging in the air.

Needless to say that this day was no exception, so when Zoro found Sanji chatting with a girl with that idiotic look on his, it was no surprise to him, but he still rolled his eyes. He had been doing that a lot ever since he met this side of Sanji and he was starting to think that one day his eyes would be permanently glued to the back of his head.

And there was Sanji, hearts floating all around him and the girl, probably the first time she was meeting Sanji and his tactics, was smiling lightly at him looking a bit embarrassed. He recognized her. Some days ago he had seen her alone standing in front of the dojo after it closed and he asked if she needed a ride. She said he didn't need it because her boyfriend was picking her up and two seconds later that did happen. He smirked; Sanji had absolutely no luck. That girl was taken.

Oh how Zoro wished the girl would just snap and tell Sanji to go away. But she just kept smiling and that annoyed Zoro even more than that cook's stupid attitude. '_Just yell at him! Punch him! Don't be nice to him! He deserves to be punched! He needs to be punched!_' he roared in his head. Anger was slowly building inside his gut… anger towards the girl for doing nothing. She should either ignore him or get mad at him. Sanji shouldn't be given this kind of attention, it would make him unbearable, right? No girl should be nice to him. It's not like he was a bad person, but… but his flirting are supposed to be fruitless. Damn it! That girl was probably too shy to be unpleasant to anyone. She needed to be saved from Sanji.

With this thought in his mind he advanced towards them and called "Ero-cook! What are you doing? I already told you your freaky eyebrows don't impress anyone."

Sanji turned his head slowly towards the green-haired man. A deadly glare printed on his eyes. In that moment Zoro knew he was lucky murder was illegal, but he grinned at the blonde's pissed expression.

"What the fu- what's your problem, algae?" Sanji's voice came out deeper and darker than usual. The girl looked confused at the sudden change of Sanji's attitude and then at Zoro's victorious face but at the same time a scary and angry glow behind it. Deciding that she shouldn't be between this two, she murmured "I have to go" and left.

The moment she left Sanji grabbed Zoro's shirt violently. "What the fuck is your problem? You scared her away!"

Zoro couldn't stop grinning. "Scared her? I saved her from your pathetic ass!"

"Sa- Saved her? Saved her you dare to say?" the blond choked on his words due to his anger boiling.

"She has a boyfriend, asshole. Don't you have any respect for others? Tch… Hitting on committed girls…"

"And what does that have to do with you? Are you her boyfriend, fuck face?" Sanji said trying not to raise his voice since some people were already starting to stare.

"No, I'm not. But since I happen to know she has one, I didn't think what you were doing was right," the swordsman said in a more serious tone.

"Don't try to play good guy on me! I know perfectly well you don't give a damn if that girl has a boyfriend or not. You just enjoy seeing me fail and you couldn't stand the fact that I was actually having a pleasant conversation with a girl," Sanji said letting go of Zoro's shirt and giving him a light but irritated push. "And by the way, I knew she had a boyfriend. I was just casually chatting and actually telling her that if she chose that boy it probably meant he was a nice person and that I hoped he made her happy. But if he ever dared to do something against her, she could count on me," he added as he passed by Zoro and left.

Zoro got a bit pissed that his fight just walked out of the door. But he knew that shitty blonde was right. And then he suddenly realized something, something he would never admit out loud. He was jealous. He had always been jealous. He hated seeing Sanji flirting with girls, that's why he would always say some sarcastic commentary. To have Sanji's attention back on him. He loved to see Sanji pissed at him and ready to fight and he was jealous of those girls for snapping his attention away from him. But at least it would be funny to see those girls reject him. But when, moments ago, that girl was smiling back at him and being nice, a sudden monster merged from Zoro's gut and it want to roar and rip that girl apart. If he didn't like Sanji's attention focused on girls, he hated it even more to see one of those girls giving him some attention back. Damn it! Why on earth was it bothering him so much?

**X x X x X**

It was a lazy Sunday. Zoro loved those days. He could sleep all day if he felt like it. He could be lazy all day without having anything to do or anyone to bother him. Nami had learned not to bother him on Sundays thankfully. He would just grab some beers, watch a movie and probably fall asleep while watching it. No worries at all. It was a perfect day to stay at home. It was November and it was starting to get really cold outside. The sky was completely covered by grey clouds threatening to rain. It was dark outside, though Zoro knew it was the middle of the day. And it was pretty windy. Yes, a perfect day to stay at home.

_Knock. Knock._

No… No… Who the fuck was at his door? It was certainly Nami. Who else could it be?

Frustrated, he walked towards the door ready to yell at his friend to go back to her own house. He opened the door, but instead of having an orange-haired cute little girl with big brown eyes looking at him, he had a blond handsome man with tiny blue eyes leaning against the doorframe.

"Zoro!" the blonde said relieve, while Zoro's brain was trying to understand why was that person at his door.

"Why are you here?" he asked suspicious.

"I was just passing by…" the cook replied casually.

"How do you know where I live?" he asked even more suspicious.

"You once pointed to this building saying you lived here. I looked for your name on the mailboxes to know which one was your apartment. Your last name is Roronoa, right?"

Of course Sanji wasn't going to admit he wasn't sure of Zoro's last name, so he had checked first another apartment getting a fat thirty year-old man attending the door that got him thinking if Zoro had a roommate, but the stupid look on his face when he asked about Zoro told him that was not the right door.

Zoro nodded in agreement about his last name while he noticed the other man's weird stance. He had his right shoulder leaning against the doorframe with his right hand on his pocket. But his left wasn't on his pocket as usual. His jacket was unbuttoned, unusual once again, and his left hand was under it and though Zoro couldn't see it, he was guessing it was resting on his side a bit lower than his right armpit. His hair was messy and his face looked tired.

He narrowed his eyes. He did remember stupidly telling Sanji where he lived, but Sanji wouldn't certainly come by just because he was passing by, so the right question to ask was:

"What do you want?"

"Tch… how rude… but the truth is first-aids would be quite helpful." Zoro narrowed his eyes once again, but this time in confusion. Sanji then removed his right hand from his pocket and used it to open the right side of his jacket revealing and confirming Zoro's thoughts of where his left hand rested. But what made Zoro open his eyes widely was that under that hand there was a big red spot on his shirt. The swordsman quickly regained his neutral face and stated objectively "you're bleeding".

"Thank you for stating the obvious moss head," the cook said sarcastically.

"What happened?"

"I had an unfortunate encounter with some little thieves who tried to steal my wallet. One fucker had knife and caught me off guard."

"And why did you come to me?"

"You were the person I knew who lived closer to where I was and I didn't want to stain my car with blood, so I thought I should walk and my house was a bit distant."

Of course Sanji wasn't going to admit that the real reason was that he was starting to feel a bit weak from the blood lose, so he decided against driving in that state. And he did enjoy the idea of seeing that marimo head.

Zoro then stepped to the side, so Sanji could get inside. However, the moment Sanji took one step he felt his knees get weak and he stumbled and fell. A strong arm quickly stopped him from crashing on the floor.

"I think I lost a little too much blood," he admitted against his will. Then he saw a smirk starting to form on Zoro's face. Oh no! That asshole! He would never hear the end of it.

"Don't you fucking dare to say anything! Say one word and I will stab you and get a vacuum to suck your blood out until you pass out! And I will even if I have to suck it all out and leave you as dry as a fucking bone!" he yelled, his face red from the sudden anger.

"Yeah, yeah…" Zoro complied while putting the cook's arm around his shoulder to help him walk. But he was not able to hide a smirk at the mental image of Sanji holding a vacuum cleaner with a psychotic and sadistic look on his face. After Sanji was sitting on the couch, he went to get what he needed.

"I don't know how much blood you actually lost, so I won't say anything about it. But… you know I'll never forget you got your ass kicked by some punks," he said grinning like mad as he came back.

"You asshole! I didn't get my ass kicked! I kicked their asses! I made sure to print their faces on the floor. There were seven of them, so I didn't notice one little fucker pulled out a knife. And while I was a bit busy paying attention to a fat man flying in my direction, that fucker cut me. That one didn't just get his face printed on the floor… He got also got his fucking face printed on that fat guy's ass," Sanji explained yelling. "Little fucker messing with me…" he added mumbling.

Zoro couldn't help it and burst out laughing. "I see you don't seem to have any head problem. Your tongue is as sharp as ever. If words could cut, those guys would be chopped in little pieces by now. Now remove your shirt." At seeing Sanji's confused expression he added "how I am suppose to treat your wound with your shirt on?"

"You don't have to do anything. I can do it by myself," the cook mumbled.

"No, you can't do shit. You probably can't even see your wound right."

Sanji growled some incoherent response but unbuttoned his bloody shirt and dumped it on the floor. "That was my favorite shirt," he said pouting.

Zoro kneeled beside him between the couch and the coffee table, while Sanji was sitting on the couch with his side turned to Zoro and his head to his right resting on the couch, and started cleaning the blood with a wet towel. That was a lot a blood and he suspected Sanji had already tried to clean some of it before.

"This cut is pretty deep. Do you want me to take you to a hospital?"

"Fuck the hospital! If I wanted to go to a hospital, I would have gone to a hospital myself," was Sanji's reply. "That's nothing. That fuck head is lucky he didn't hit my hand. Otherwise I would have murdered him."

"Unless he had chopped your hand off I don't think an injury to your hand would be has serious and deep as this one." Sanji just gave him a menacing look and Zoro was able to guess the unspoken words: '_a cook's hands are precious… I know, I know_'.

"I have a friend who is on medical school. He'll probably know how to do this better than I do. Do you want me to call him?"

"You're not going to bother anyone because of me."

"Oh… But it's okay for you to bother me."

"Shut up shitty-marimo. If you don't want to do it I told you I could do it myself." The blonde tried to rip the towel from Zoro's hands, but the green-haired man pulled it away from his reach.

"I'll do it. Stop moving."

The swordsman resumed to his task of cleaning the blood off. At the beginning, when he cleaning a zone far from the wound he was being a bit rough, but the moment he started getting closer to the wound his movements went slower and softer. Sanji eyed him surprised noticing the concentration on his face, but he said nothing. He liked it better this way, so he wasn't going to complain. Zoro was actually being pretty gentle. _'Who knew that muscle-head could do that…'_

It took a while before he was able to clean all that blood and properly clean the wound.

"I think this in as clean as I can get it. I don't have anything else, so I'm using alcohol to disinfect this. Is that alright with you?"

Of course Sanji wasn't going to bitch about it. Bring it on.

"Yes…"

Zoro moisten some gauze with alcohol and gently applied it on the wound. Sanji couldn't help and let out a little hiss. It burned like hell! After he was done he started to bandage Sanji's body to cover the wound.

"I still think you need stitches."

"Shut up. I didn't ask for your opinion. I asked for your help."

"And I still found it weird you want my help. I thought you would prefer to bleed your way home or stain your car with blood than ask for my help," Zoro pointed out.

Sanji grinned. "And waste a chance to bother you? Please tell me I ruined your peaceful Sunday," he said pointing to the beer on the coffee table.

"You did. But it was worth it. I got to see you bleeding and stumbling out of weakness after getting your ass kicked," the green-man said smirking.

"I didn't get my ass kicked! I told you already! And where are your knives and vacuum cleaner? I'm sucking your blood out," the blonde said in a serious and threatening tone.

Zoro burst out laughing. "I'd rather not. But I don't have a vacuum cleaner anyway."

"Then I'll suck your blood myself." The look on the cook's face was sadistic and psychotic. It would easily scare any man, but not Zoro. Especially when he was suddenly imagining himself with that same wound and Sanji's mouth on his skin sucking on the wound. He shook that thought away, but having a half naked Sanji on his couch was not helping. Was he going crazy?

"So I was saying… I didn't think you would come to me for help," Zoro said trying to change the subject away from Sanji acting like a vampire.

"Me neither…" Sanji snorted, his expression going back to normal. "But, as I said before, you were the only person I knew who lived around here. Believe me, I'd prefer to have a beautiful lady's hands on me treating my wounds…"

That monster growled inside Zoro once again. The monster of jealousy. And letting that "monster" take over him for a few seconds, he acted without thinking. Sanji's babbling about beautiful ladies being way better nurses than green muscles-heads was suddenly shut when Zoro's lips glued to his own in a fierce kiss. Sanji's brain shut down and his actions were lead by the sensations that came with that pair lips. He kissed Zoro back as fiercely. That kiss was hot and hungry and soon he felt Zoro pushing him and fell with his back on the couch, but Zoro's lips never left his. The kiss heated up as their tongues brushed one another and suddenly…

"Stop!" Sanji pushed Zoro away and the swordsman immediately rolled to his side and landed with his back on the floor breathing heavenly. He knew what was coming next. _'What the hell are you doing? Are you crazy? We're both man! Blah blah blah…'_

But that never came. Instead he heard Sanji's voice say after a gasp for air "I don't think this is good for my wound".

For the third time that day, Zoro burst out laughing. Then the blonde sit up. Now that his brain was function again he was sure he was as red as a tomato and with his elbows resting on his knees he hid his face behind his hands. That kiss was so good. No, that kiss was insanely good. It was way beyond Sanji's expectations. Oh he would never admit, but he had some expectations about how it would be to kiss Zoro. Of course he would never imagine it would be the best fucking kiss of his entire life. Better than any kiss he had experienced with any girl. And he knew it had nothing to do with fact he was a man. It was because he was Zoro.

"I have never kissed a man before," Sanji admitted quietly. But it had felt so right.

Zoro looked up at him. He could see a tone of red behind those long and slender hands. He got up on his knees and positioned himself in front of Sanji and between his knees. This way his face was at the same height that Sanji's.

"Me neither," he replied. He wrapped his hands around the slender wrists and moved Sanji's hand away from his face. Then he slowly leaned forward half-expecting him to pull away, but that didn't happen. He closed the distance and their lips met on a kiss once again. But this time it was not a fierce and hungry kiss. It was a slow and tender press of lips. Leisurely Zoro started sitting down on the floor and, still holding those lean wrists, he pulled Sanji with him, never breaking the kiss, until the blonde was sitting on his lap. He wrapped his arms around Sanji's slim waist and Sanji rested his hands on Zoro's shoulder.

Their kiss slowly growing more intense.

* * *

><p><em>So here's the extra chapter. I hope you enjoy it.<em>

_According to my calculations, at the story currently it should be beginning/middle of march, so six months ago it would be september._

_(It's 4am, so I'm sorry if there are a lot of mistakes ._. I tried to correct as much I could as re-read it and I did correct a bunch of them. Let's hope I didn't miss too many)_


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Chess was boring.

Zoro never liked playing chess. He wasn't even sure he understood all the rules. He had never won a single game. Well he rarely played it anyway. He was just playing at that moment because he knew Chopper liked it. Brook was out of the country in a business trip and Usopp was going to stay at the university working on some project until late hours, so Zoro had invited his little friend over to his house to have dinner, so he wouldn't have to eat alone at home.

"Ah… the knight can't make that move," Chopper warned him.

"Hmm… Sorry." He always had trouble how to move the knight. Who the hell invented such a complicated game? Zoro liked things simple. Not easy, but simple.

Chess was boring. Everything was boring. Nothing interesting was happening in his life. Usopp's stories seemed more boring every day. Arguing with Nami wasn't worth it anymore and trying to get on her nerves stop being funny. Even going to the dojo was boring. He would see Sanji there sometimes, but they would just trade some half-hearted insults and leave it at that. Not a single fight started between them since that night. Zoro wouldn't admit he missed Sanji, but he missed their fights. He missed them so badly, they made his life more exciting and going to work way more interesting.

If the best part of having Sanji in his life was gone, it would be better that the blonde would be completely out of his life, but that was impossible because besides the fact that Sanji was still attending to the dojo, they now had friends in common. Their group of friends would go out often, so Zoro had to put up with Sanji anyway. But their arguments weren't nearly as fierce as they used to be. It was almost like they were discussing because that was what their friends were expecting from them. After all that was their deal: break up so they could go back to being two friends who argue a lot. But even when Sanji was next to him, he was so distant from him. Could they still be called friends...?

"Zoro?" a sweet childish voice dragged him from his thoughts. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm okay Chopper."

Chopper looked at him with worried big brown eyes. "Are you sure? Lately you have been a bit… hmm… off…"

"Off?" the swordsman repeated confused not understanding his friend.

"Yeah… you have been distant… even when you are with us it looks like you're not. It's like you're absent even though you're here."

Zoro frown.

"Really? Have I been giving you that impression?" Chopper nodded.

"Well don't worry. Maybe I have been… off as you say, but there is no reason for you to worry, okay? I just have been thinking…" Zoro said trying to comfort his younger friend.

"I prefer a Zoro that doesn't think…" Chopper said still looking worried.

"Oi! That's the way you usually see me?" the older man said with a vein popping in his forehead in annoyance.

Chopper giggled. Lately Zoro barely reacted when Nami or Usopp said something that would usually irritated. The fact the he just pulled an annoyed reaction out of Zoro was a good sign.

"You'll come out with us on Saturday, won't you?" Chopper asked hopefully.

"Of course I will," Zoro replied smiling, though his will to go was near to zero.

**X x X x X**

"Damn it Luffy! What's taking you so long?" the older brother asked impatient.

"I can't find my wallet!"

With an annoyed sound Ace walked into Luffy's room and started helping him looking for it.

"It's only natural you can't find a damn thing here. This place is a mess!"

"Look who's talking… your room is almost as messy as mine," Luffy said munching.

"Why the hell are you eating instead of looking for your wallet?" Ace yelled while punching his brother in the head.

"Ouch! I found some cookies under my bed while looking for it!" Luffy said defensive.

"That… that's not safe to eat! Do you want to get sick you idiot?" the fireman kept on yelling, almost stumbling on his words because of his brother's stupidity.

"Now that you mention it doesn't taste very good…" Luffy observed.

"Spit it out!"

"I already swallowed it."

"If you get sick because of it, I swear I won't take you to the hospital!"

"Anyway, where's Sanji? Aren't we supposed to wait for him?"

"No, he'll meet us there. Now get moving and find your wallet so we can leave!"

Ace and Luffy spent their way to the usual bar arguing about the place where they found Luffy's wallet, it was on top of his wardrobe. Luffy claimed that it had mysteriously appeared there.

"Ace-bro! Luffy-bro! You're late," Franky greeted them first.

"Luffy's fault," Ace said. "We're sorry."

"Ahahah! It's okay. No need to be sorry. Where's Sanji-bro?"

"We'll meet us here later."

"Why? Is he working? I thought he didn't work Saturday nights," Usopp asked confused.

"No, he's not working," the fireman said smirking and looking at his friends' curious faces he added "he's on date."

Everyone leaned forward interested. Everyone except for one.

"Uh! Who's the girl?" Chopper asked.

"A friend of mine, I set them on a date. I think they match quite well," Ace informed.

"Well I don't know why we are all surprised… Knowing Sanji, he must have a date every week," Usopp said.

"Actually it's been a long time since I last heard that Sanji was date," Robin said, "however I don't know everything about his personal life. I'm not exactly his confident."

"Robin's right. I don't know either if he has been on other dates, but it's the first time in a long time since he's been on a date that I know of," Ace said.

While the others kept on chatting curiously about this matter and talking about the girl, Nami noticed the only one who didn't look interested and wasn't participating in the conversation was the man beside her. Zoro was just sitting with his arms crossed over his chest. But his face wasn't showing the indifference that has become so usual about him lately. He actually looked angry and upset. She knew how much he loved to mock Sanji about his failed flirting, but could it actually upset him that Sanji was on what seemed to be a successful date? It didn't sound like Zoro.

She quickly forgot about these thoughts as she heard the cook's voice.

"Hello everybody! Nami-san, Robin-chan, I'm very pleased to see you two as always."

"What? Aren't you pleased to see us as well?" Usopp asked.

"Of course not! You know damn well that if it wasn't for these two beautiful ladies I wouldn't bother come here to meet you bastards," Sanji replied teasingly.

"Ahahah! You know you love us, Sanji-bro!" Franky said.

"Yeah… But more importantly: how was the date?" Ace asked curiously.

"It went pretty well. We had dinner together," the blonde said uncharacteristically self-conscious. Nami felt Zoro shift uncomfortably by her side.

"Please tell me you cooked for her. Because if you didn't you're the dumbest man alive," the long-nosed boy said.

"Yes, I cooked for her…"

"You took her to Baratie?" the blue-haired man asked.

"No! That would have been hell. Patty and Carne would be spying on me all the time. Since I didn't want to bother Ace or Luffy, more like be bothered by them, old man Zeff let me use his apartment, so I could cook for her peacefully. Everything went very well, she's an amazing girl. I believe she liked my food, unless of course, she politely lied saying she liked it."

"She didn't lie! Only a very stupid person would dislike your food," Luffy said cheerfully.

"Ah! I miss Sanji's food," Usopp admitted sighing.

"Yeah it's been some time since I last cooked for you. Nami-san, Robin-chan, how about dinner at my house next Sunday not counting tomorrow? Oh you guys are all invited as well."

A happy scream surged from the group announcing how much all of them thought it was a good idea.

The night kept going pretty well, but Nami noticed Zoro's mood was worst. Was he actually upset by the fact he couldn't mock Sanji? That wasn't like him to be that childish and selfish. He kept silent all the time frowning to his beer, only interrupting his silence to grunt some reply to whoever dared to talk to him. Sanji didn't even talk to him and she could understand the reason perfectly: he didn't want to ruin his evening.

**X x X x X**

One week later, it was a late Saturday afternoon and Nami was alone at Luffy's home for one simple reason. She had gone there to meet him, but when she got there Franky called Luffy to ask him for his help for a quick matter. So while her boyfriend was out hopefully not for too long, she was inspecting his room, alone in a house that didn't belong to her. She stopped to look at a frame on his bedside table. It had a photo that showed Sanji and Ace by his side with an arm around his neck and Luffy behind them with his chin resting between the other two heads and his arms and legs warped around them both. Ace and Luffy were happily grinning, but Sanji looked slightly annoyed. However she could clearly see that behind upset face he was actually pleased. She also notice that behind them there were a lot of boxes and, though it was a bit unrecognizable, it looked like they were standing on their living room with nothing in it besides boxes. That photo must have been taken the day they moved in.

She heard a click and a door opening and Sanji's voice filled the apartment.

"Damn it Ace! I can't believe you forgot the eggs! I told you to go get the eggs!"

"You told me to get the eggs plus a million other things, so I forgot the eggs," Ace argued.

'_Sanji and Ace are home and they're arguing. I guess I should let them calm down before I show myself_' Nami thought as another photo caught her attention.

"Tch… You're useless…" Sanji accused.

"And you're ungrateful! I offered myself to help you go to the supermarket and just because I forgot one damn thing you get all worked up. Couldn't you check if we had everything before we left?"

"Oh I'm sorry I trusted you to accomplish such a simple task," the blonde man replied sarcastically.

"You asshole! You didn't forget anything because you had the list!" the older man yelled.

"I didn't need the list! I knew exactly what we needed."

"Then you should have given it to me!"

"Whatever… Forget it. I'll buy the eggs tomorrow."

There was a moment of silence during which only the sound of things being taken out of bags and put on their respective place was heard. However Nami didn't took this chance to show herself because she was distracted observing a photo of Luffy hugging her with his trademark grin, nuzzling his face on her cheek while she was smiling shyly. It was a cute picture she had to admit. He picked a good photo to put in his room.

"You know, I met Keimi today." Ace's voice coming from the kitchen pulled Nami out of her thoughts. There was a pause at the sound comings from the kitchen as if Sanji had frozen at hearing those words.

"Really?"

"Yeah… she told me she really loved the date with you, but that it probably won't happen again."

"I guess she didn't love our date that much then," Sanji said with a nervous laugh.

"No, that's not it. She told me you told her you got out of a relationship recently and you didn't feel ready to go out on dates yet. She told me she felt like you still have strong feeling towards that person." Ace's tone was calm but slightly accusing.

Sanji was glad he had his back turned to his friend because he was pretty sure that all the color had drained out of his face. Damn it! Why wasn't he able to lie to ladies? Why did he tell her that? Why was he so honest with her? But he couldn't help himself. Lying to ladies was not something he would do.

Meanwhile Nami was frustrated. She missed her chance and they had gone from yelling to talking about personal things and she didn't want to interrupt them. But she felt bad for hearing their conversation, but she couldn't close Luffy's bedroom door without them noticing.

Sanji couldn't figure out something to say. He couldn't say he lied to Keimi because Ace knew him better and there wasn't a plausible explanation to why he would tell such a lovely girl a lie like that. As he kept silent, Ace talked again.

"I wouldn't call your last relationship recent, so she got me confused. And please don't tell me you're still in love with that bitch." Ace feared that the reason Sanji didn't tell him anything about this so called recent relationship was because he gotten back together with his last girlfriend that Ace couldn't stand.

"No… no… I'm way over her." Sanji didn't like a lady being addressed that way, but it pretty much described Kalifa's bitchy attitude. Ace and Luffy hated her and even Franky and Robin didn't like her.

"Then what were you talking about? How recent is that relationship?"

The cook signed. "Pretty recent…"

"Maybe it ended around three week ago…" Ace said pretending he was guessing, though it was clear he wasn't.

Yeah, Sanji had even told Keimi that. "Yes… I guess…" Sanji admitted.

"Okay… why don't I know about this and Keimi does?"

"Because you are not my date, so I never thought it was relevant."

"Well I'm your friend, why keep it a secret?"

Sanji shook his head. What was he supposed to say?

"I asked innumerous times if you had a girlfriend. Why did you lie to me?" Ace insisted.

"I didn't lie to you!"

The dark-haired man got confused. Was he actually denying he lied to him after he just admitted he was on a relationship not too long ago?

"You didn't lie to me? Don't tell that the last time I asked you about it you weren't dating yet because I'm pretty sure the last time I talked about it was three weeks ago when you supposedly broke up!"

"Well if I had broken up then I wouldn't have a girlfriend would I?" the cook was starting to get irritated by this conversation.

"Oh so you tricked me with a detail like that!"

Sanji shrugged. "What if I did?" he asked provocative.

"The funny thing is Keimi told me you told her it was a four months relationship and I'm pretty sure I asked you that question many times within those four months" Ace said, but his face showed it was not funny at all.

Shit! Why the hell had Sanji opened up with Keimi? Did he forget she was Ace's friend? He told her too much, but thankfully not that much. He never mentioned who he was dating.

"I'm sorry Ace, but you have to believe I didn't lie to you."

"So you lied to Keimi, is that what you are saying?"

"No, I didn't lie to either of you."

"If you don't explain it to me I don't know how that is possible."

"I'm sorry. I really don't want to talk about it. Can we _please_ not talk about it?" Sanji begged.

Ace wasn't nearly satisfied with his friend's answers. Actually they made no sense. He said that he didn't lie to Keimi, admitting he was in a four-month relationship that ended around three weeks ago; however he also claimed he didn't lie to him when he had asked him various times if he had a girlfriend. Sanji had either lost his mind or he was lying to him. But why? A part of him wanted to yell and smack Sanji's head into the wall for not making any sense, but another part of him noticed his friend's begging tone and how uncomfortable he was about this matter.

'_If Sanji doesn't want to tell me anything he must have a good reason. Maybe I should try to believe him, even though it sounds impossible, and leave him alone for a while. Maybe he'll tell me when he feels it is the right time to tell me._' The fireman thought, even though he was still mad and his curiosity was killing him.

That was some strange conversation and Nami was secretly agreeing with Ace: Sanji was making no sense. Even though that conversation had been weird and intriguing she shook it off and decided to take this chance of silence to make herself noticed. She walked out of Luffy's room and marched towards the kitchen.

"Hello Sanji-kun, Ace-kun!"

"Nami-san! I didn't know someone was home!" Sanji said clearly surprised. "I'm sorry for my manners, but if I had any idea you were here I would have greeted you the moment I put a foot in this apartment."

"No, I'm the one who's sorry for not showing myself before, Sanji-kun. But I was in the bathroom."

"It's okay" Ace said smiling, "but where's my brother?"

"He had to help Franky with something, so I'm just here waiting for him."

"I'll make sure to kick his head for making such a lovely lady wait!" Sanji said.

"It's not his fault. Franky is his boss after all. And it's okay; I don't mind."

"Then I shall kick Franky for making Luffy make a lady wait."

"Well that I can't oppose" she said giggling. "Do you need help?"

"No, no! We can that care of this ourselves, thank you Nami" the dark-haired man said.

"Yes, Ace's right. You're a guest and a lady. We're good, so please you can sit" the cook said guiding her to the living room. "I can't believe I haven't taken out my coat yet!" he exclaimed stripping his coat off and Nami noticed he was wearing a pink sweat-shirt underneath it. A very familiar pink shirt. However she couldn't remember ever seeing Sanji wearing it before. '_Where have I seen it before then?_' And then she remembered. She had found a shirt exactly like that in Zoro's room one or two months ago.

'_Funny those two would have shirts exactly alike… and pink!_' But before she could finish that thought a million thoughts ran through her head linking together as puzzle pieces and finally forming a conclusive thought. '_No way! That can't be true! I'm just over thinking and imagining impossible things… But it makes sense somehow._'

It did make sense. Suddenly that conversation between Sanji and Ace made sense. But at the same time it couldn't be. It was impossible. It made no sense… but at the same time it did.

"Nami-san? Are you okay?" Sanji asked worriedly observing the girl's blank stare like she wasn't seeing anymore; at least she wasn't looking at anything that belonged to that room. Nami was ripped out of her thoughts.

"Oh I'm fine. I'll just be seating there waiting then" she said with a distant smile and walked towards the couch. Sanji watched her puzzled for a moment and then went back to the kitchen.

She sat down and tried to clear her thoughts. '_Okay that's look at the facts calmly and objectively. This is probably a big coincidence. A very big coincidence!_'

First fact: Sanji's shirt was exactly like Zoro's shirt. No doubted about it. She had studied that shirt quite well because she was so perplexed that Zoro would have a pink shirt and wear it because when she found it, it was clearly used. Difference: it suited Sanji _so_ much better than Zoro, mainly because pink didn't suit Zoro at all, but also because Zoro's shirt looked way too tight on him. It was clearly a model that was supposed to look slightly baggy, just like it did on Sanji. But imagining that those weren't two models of the same shirt, but were exactly the same shirt. More precisely: Sanji's shirt. Then it would make sense why it looked so tight on Zoro. Sanji was clearly way thinner that Zoro. But it could be just a coincidence that they bought the same model with the same color and Zoro had messed up with its size. But if it was exactly the same shirt, why would Zoro have Sanji's shirt at his apartment?

That leads to the second fact: Ace had said Sanji had been in a four months relationship and Sanji seemed to agree to that. Nami had ripped off from Zoro that he had been in relationship for three or four months. Coincidence? Yes… probably.

But looking at fact number three: Sanji had agreed when Ace asked if that relationship had ended around three weeks ago. Wasn't around that time that Nami had asked and Zoro had said that he had broken up with whoever he was dating. Coincidence again? It could be, after all the universe worked in a weird way.

And Nami believed in coincidences, but when there are too many about some same matter, anyone would start doubting. So the idea of Sanji being Zoro's mysterious date had popped into her head. But another part of her was skeptical. Anyone who met Sanji knew his obsession with ladies and his exhausting flirting with them, so he couldn't possibly swing that way. Or could he?

But she had one final fact: the controversy that had been Sanji and Ace's conversation minutes ago. More specifically that part when Sanji claimed he didn't lied to that girl when he told her he just got out of a recent relationship and at the same that he claimed that he didn't lie to Ace all those times Ace had asked if he had a girlfriend and Sanji denied. So if Sanji was in fact in a relationship with Zoro then he wouldn't be lying to Ace because he didn't have a _girlfriend_. He had a _boyfriend_. That was the only explanation she could think of that made sense, excluding that Sanji was either lying or not sane.

But it sounded so unbelievable. But at the same time with all those facts it was surprisingly believable. It couldn't be all coincidences. Nami needed more proofs, more conclusive proofs. She needed to study their behavior around each other. Something like… like… '_Oh my god! I just remembered a new fact based on their behavior. More exactly Zoro's behavior._' Exactly one week ago Zoro had acted upset when Sanji arrived talking about his date. Zoro looked very upset and uncomfortable. Could it be that he was jealous? Now that Nami thought about it, it looked exactly like it. Jealous Zoro… that was so interesting.

A small smile curled at her lips. She so needed to find out more about this matter.

* * *

><p><em>I'm sorry for taking a bit too long to update. I had written most of this chapter a while a ago, but then left it in stand-by ._.<em>

_Nami finally hits the bingo!_

_When I first introduced the pink shirt, it was merely for a comical situation. And then one day an idea hit me and I decided to give Pink Shirt a bigger roll. "You shall appear once again and this time you shall play a bigger roll on the story, you will induce Nami into deep thoughts and reveal her the truth" I said. Needless to say Pink Shirt is very thankful for the opportunity given. "I shall not disapoint you!" it said. _

_I hope you enjoy it ^^ Reviews are very welcome!_


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Sanji woke up the next day and lazily realized it was Sunday and he didn't work that day. Zeff would give him two Sundays off every month. However the last Sunday Sanji was supposed to have free, he went working anyway, but this time Zeff had forbidden him to put his feet on Baratie. Sanji had been working more hours than usual doing extra hours and extra days until Zeff snapped and gave him a lecture about working according to his schedule and he would only work extra hours if Zeff agreed with it and this Sunday he was not agreeing with it. Sanji was going to stay home and rest.

Sanji got up and as he passed by his mirror he stopped to watch his reflection. Unconsciously he lifted the huge T-shirt he was using as pajamas and observed the scar on his right side. The moment that punk had cut him he had wanted to beat him to a pulp, but with time he had almost thanked the guy for it. It had triggered a relationship with that stupid marimo and Sanji had been quite happy with him. But now he was thinking if that hadn't been a curse instead. It had showed him the taste of it when clearly he and Zoro were not meant to be. But Sanji should have known all along. He had always believed there was a girl out there he was meant to be. Why did he get involved with that shitty swordsman? It was definitely a curse.

But then he remembered the words he had heard the day before they broke up. "_Because I'm in love with someone else!_" Zoro had said to Nami. Sanji had the opinion that the word love in this kind of manners shouldn't be pronounced unless a person really means it. That is why he had rarely used the word love seriously. He would say jokingly "I'm in love with that girl" if he saw a pretty girl passing by, but when it came to say it seriously and truthfully Sanji most of the times would prefer not say it because he was never sure. And Zoro seemed like the type of guy who would never use that word for any matter, joking or serious. So hearing that had confused Sanji's mind and had him questioning his feelings for Zoro. Had Zoro meant it? Or had he said it just to shut Nami up? The thought that he had meant it warmed Sanji's heart, but at the same time broke his heart because the next day they had broken up because of his own insecurities. However the thought that Zoro didn't mean it crushed his heart more brutally. After all Zoro had been the one suggesting they should break up. No… Zoro wasn't that way. He wouldn't say it if he didn't mean it.

Sanji let out a frustrated grumble. There was a reason he had been working extra hours. Working kept him focused and wouldn't allow him to think about other matters. And he didn't want to think about this particular matter. It would only get him confused and depressed. He needed a way out. He needed his mind away from those thoughts. Working was a good solution. He cursed Zeff for not letting him work that day. He had just woken up and he was already thinking about it.

He got out of his room, too annoyed and lazy to make breakfast, and stepped inside Ace's room who was still sleeping. He opened the blinds only a tiny bit, so the room wasn't completely dark and then sat next to Ace slipping his legs under the sheets.

Ace woke up at the sound of someone sitting by his side and by a few sun rays that were now crossing his room. Turning his head sleepily he saw Sanji in his bed. It had been a long time since Sanji had done this. There was a time when Sanji would do this sometimes on what they called a "lazy Sunday" and they would talk about everything. Some days it would be about serious things, other days about stupid things and they would laugh, or about things that happened to them through the week and they hadn't had the chance to talk about or even to remember some old memories. Ace rubbed his eyes trying to get rid of the sleepiness. It took him almost a minute to be enough awaken to process a certain thought. _'Maybe Sanji wants to tell what he didn't want to tell me yesterday!'_ That finally got rid of his sleepiness.

"So… What's up?" he started.

"Nothing… nothing at all… Zeff didn't let me work today."

"Well, it's your Sunday off. And besides you have a big dinner to prep for tonight!"

"I don't need a whole day to prepare a dinner…"

Silence.

"So… Anything you want to tell me?"

"Nope…"

Ace tightened his fists in frustration under the sheets. Okay! Change strategy!

"Don't tell me you are feeling lonely and you want someone to cuddle with" he said wrapping his arms around Sanji's waist and rubbing his cheek on the chef's side.

"What the hell? Get off Ace! I don't want to cuddle with you for certain" Sanji yelled while pushing him away.

Ace removed his arms and sat up. "Oh right! Luffy is a much better cuddler."

Sanji let out an irritated sound followed, almost simultaneously, by a chuckle. "I don't want to cuddle with Luffy either." Though he tried to sound stern, a laugh trying to be suppressed could still be heard in his voice. "You're an asshole, you know? I don't want to cuddle with you, and much less with Luffy."

"Oh! I'm flattered. Then you prefer to cuddle with me than with Luffy!"

"Ace…"

"I'm joking man! Then who do you prefer to cuddle with?"

The blonde rolled his eyes. "No…"

"I would have accepted something like «the cute girl from the bakery downstairs», you know?" he fireman said shrugging.

Sanji smirked. "For what? So you could stalk her to know if I was being serious or if I was just joking?"

"Stalk? No! Do I look like a stalker?" the black-haired man said with a fake shocked expression.

"Hmm… Yes, you actually do."

A pillow quickly crashed into Sanji's face.

"Hey! Asshole!"

And it crashed into his face one more time.

"Stop it!" Sanji protested between Ace's laughs.

"SAAAANJIIIIIIIIII! FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!"

The next moment the door opened and Luffy came in running and jumped on the bed, landing on Sanji.

"I'm going to kill you Luffy!"

"Shishishi! Sorry…" he apologized smiling.

"You're lucky my legs are under the sheets, or I would have kicked the shit out of you."

"Where's breakfast?"

"Go make it yourself!"

"No! I'm hungry!"

"Just get something from the kitchen and stop bugging me!"

Luffy left immediately. It was rare for him to get permission from Sanji to get something from the kitchen. He came back shortly after carrying as much bags of potatoes chips as he could.

"So what are you talking about?" he asked with his mouth full between the sound of munching and crunching (receiving a menacing look from Sanji).

When Ace was about to say "nothing", the blonde by his side suddenly said "what would you do or feel if you accidently overheard someone say they loved you?"

Ace and Luffy shared an intrigued look. They were definitely not expecting that.

"Hmm… well that depends. I mean do we love that person back?" Ace said.

Sanji thought for a while and then replied "no".

"It's always nice to hear someone loves you. So I think I would be happy" Luffy said.

"But I would also feel bad for not returning the feelings. And I would hope that person would not suffer because of it" Ace completed.

Sanji kept looking down at the sheets. He wasn't even sure what he was feeling. "And what if…"

Ace looked at him, examining him for a moment. "What if you loved that person back?"

Sanji motioned yes with his head.

"I would feel super happy! If I heard Nami say she loved me, it would be one of the happiest days of my life" Luffy said with an honest and happy smile.

"What if you can't be together because of… things… reasons…"

Ace gave Sanji a suspicious look while Luffy looked confused. "What do you mean can't be together? Aren't we talking about two people who love each other?"

Sanji signed at his friend's naïve personality. "Yes… but sometimes there are obstacles preventing those two people to be together."

"Well, then it depends on the obstacles. But most of all it depends if your love has enough strength to take down those obstacles."

Ace and Sanji looked at Luffy like he was an alien. How the hell were those words coming out of Luffy's mouth?

"I mean, for example, Usopp and Kaya, apparently they liked each other for ages, but only recently they started dating. Part of it was because they were shy, according to Nami, but it was also because Usopp was afraid of her father. He knew he wouldn't approve it. It took him some years to gather enough courage to ask her. But then her father found out and went crazy. But Kaya faced him and said she wasn't going to give up on him just because he disapproved. So they had an obstacle, but they didn't give up. It took them some years, but they stayed true to their feelings."

Ace and Sanji's jaws dropped. "Wow! Luffy… could it be that you are a romantic deep down?" Ace whispered with his eyes wide open.

Luffy shrugged. "Not really. I just don't like the idea of people giving up because of one obstacle. I believe that if people try hard, strengthen their muscles, heart, mind, whatever it's needed, they can overcome any obstacles. And I think it applies to love as well."

Sanji stayed silent thinking about the whole conversation. How had he felt when he heard Zoro say it? Part of him was happy yes. But it could have been because, as Luffy said, it's nice to hear that someone loves you. Did he felt bad for not returning the feeling as Ace had suggested? Well not exactly, because he did have feelings for the marimo, otherwise he wouldn't have been together with him for so long. But he wasn't sure how strong those feelings were. Not_ love_ for sure, that's why he panicked a bit. So he didn't feel bad, but he kind of panicked. So he had feelings for him, but it didn't quite make to love. Was his logic right? He didn't know what to think. But they were over, so why was he still beating himself about it? _'I guess Luffy's right. Our love just wasn't strong enough. It wasn't even love most likely. As I thought, it isn't meant to be.'_

He got up suddenly, startling both brothers who were talking about something else he wasn't paying attention. "I'm going to buy the eggs someone forgot yesterday" he announced, leaving while Ace gave him an irritated look.

**X x X x X**

"Sanji!" the black-haired boy's voice filled the kitchen and almost immediately he jumped and wrapped his arms and legs around said cook.

"No! Dinner is not ready yet, Luffy! Get off me and let me finished!"

"I wasn't going to ask about dinner" the younger boy informed releasing his friend. "Yesterday Nami asked me if she could bring her nephew here today. Her sister asked her to take care of him for the whole day. I said it was okay, but she told me to warn you and Ace. But I kinda forgot, so I'm telling you now!" he said scratching his head and smiling apologetically.

Sanji widened his eyes. "Nami-san has a nephew?"

"Yes, she does. Has she never mentioned it to you?"

The blonde shook his head. "How old is he? Is he going to eat?"

"No, he's like a year and a half, I believe."

"By the way, Nami is the only one who isn't here yet, right?"

"Yeah… but she'll be here in a minute." That said and the door bell was heard ringing.

Both run to the door. Sanji opened it revealing the lovely orange-haired girl they were expecting. In her arms was a dark-blue haired baby boy with big expressive brown eyes.

"Welcome, dear Nami-san! I didn't know you had just a lovely nephew!"

"Yes, this is Namiko. Say hello Namiko! This is Luffy and this is Sanji!"

The baby started stretching his arms towards Sanji and said "Aji!"

"Oh I think he likes you, Sanji-kun!" Nami said smiling while Sanji took the baby in his arms.

"He's so cute! He has your eyes, Nami-san!"

"Yes, they're also my sister Nojiko's eyes" she said after giving Luffy a quick kiss.

"I didn't imagine you would be an aunt by now" the cook said still surprised.

"Neither did I. My sister is a few years older than me and Namiko was a bit of an accident. A happy accident as my sister says," she said patting her nephew in the head and smiling. "Thankfully she was already in a stable relationship with her boyfriend and they both had secure jobs. So even if they weren't planning to have kids so soon, everything went well."

"That's good to hear. He looks like a wonderful kid," Sanji said smiling sweetly at the kid in his arms, who seem quite comfortable there even though that blond man was a stranger.

On the living room Zoro was seating on the couch observing Sanji, Luffy, Nami and the baby. He had met Namiko before and he wasn't very good with babies, so he wasn't interested in the unexpected guest. He was paying attention to Sanji. The weather had finally started to warm up, so it was warm enough for a person to wear a t-shirt at least inside a house. And that what was Sanji was wearing. He wasn't wearing a suit, but some black pants and a navy blue t-shirt with the words "gentle cook". It was the first time Zoro got to see some more of Sanji's skin besides his face and hands since they broke up. He could see his arms, but he didn't like what he was seeing. Sanji's arms always looked thin, but a sexy thin, a thin that Zoro knew hold much strength. But in that moment his arms looked too much skinny. Was that even possible? Apparently it was. He had held those arms many times and they weren't like these before. But he couldn't hold those arms again to make sure if it wasn't just his eyes that were tricking him. He looked at Ace who was seating next to him and he got this urge to ask him about it, but decided against it.

"Is Sanji losing weight?" He decided against it! Then why did the words come out of his mouth anyway?

Ace was surprised for a moment, while taking a quick glance at Sanji, and then replied "I know! Right?" The way he said it easily transmitted the idea that he thought the same, but Zoro was the first person to agree with him.

"Now that you mention it, he does look slimmer" Usopp, who was seating on the other side of Zoro, said.

"I think the same, but one day I asked him that and he told me I was the one getting fatter!" Ace informed.

"I wouldn't be surprised! I don't know how you and Luffy live with Sanji and you still keep your shape," the long-nosed shared.

"Well, we have a fast metabolism and we do a lot of exercise. But the thing is that I wondered about that and I actually weight myself after so many years and if my memory is correct, I weight exactly the same!" the fireman said.

"So… Sanji really is losing weight?" Zoro asked.

"Well… look at him! I believe so. I started noticing it some months ago; Sanji was pretty stressed by that time, so I thought that was the reason. Stress can do that to a person. But then he stopped being stressed and I thought he was going to go back to normal."

Zoro had noticed that too by that time and that was one of the reasons that triggered him to think their relationship was not healthy. He also had thought Sanji would go back to normal after they broke up.

"But I think he just got worse and now it's even more obvious." Ace concluded.

"Hmmm… Why do you think he got worse? Are you sure he's not stressed anymore?" the engineer-to-be asked.

"I know a stressed Sanji when I see one and that is gone for a while. I think the reason now might be he's working way too much," the dark-haired boy said. "He's working extra hours and days. He just didn't work today because Zeff forbid him."

"Why is he working extra hours? Is he having money problems?" Usopp asked.

"No, I don't think so, Sanji is the one who makes more money out of the three of us in this house. I asked him if he has something in his mind he wants to buy, but he said no. He said he just has been having this will to work, so he's taking advantage of it to make some extra money in case he needs it in the future."

"So you are saying that he's working extra time, but he's enjoying it and he doesn't look stressed over it. Could that really be reason?" the curly haired boy said looking all serious as if he was a detective trying to solve a case.

"It doesn't sound plausible, right? He was a bit depressed a while ago, but he has been looking better, though not completely" Ace said.

"Hmmm… Is he really better? Or is he hiding his depression?" Usopp asked mysteriously.

'_He's hiding something alright…'_ Ace thought, but decided not to share with his friends.

"I don't know…" he said instead.

"Maybe he's just sick. Have you thought about it?" Usopp said.

"Who's sick?" Chopper came out of nowhere, at least that was the impression the three men at the couch got, looking all worried.

"No one! We were just wondering if Sanji's sick, because you know… he looks like he has been losing some weight," Usopp said.

"You're right! I'll go talk to him!" the doctor-to-be said worriedly stepping away towards the chef.

The dinner went quite well. Sanji's lasagna was delicious and he didn't have to kick Luffy many times for trying to steal food from others. Namiko insisted in staying on Sanji's lap the whole time, thought he accepted to go with Nami for a while, so Sanji could eat in peace. Brook told stories about his business trip to another country, how one day he started playing violin in the middle of a street and people loved him. Usopp told about his inventions in his engineering projects, though Franky was the only who seemed interested and was giving him advices. It was a cheerful evening and not even Zoro was able to keep his frown or apathetic look all the time. However he sometimes would quickly glance at Sanji and his skinny arms with a worried expression. Those glances were so quick that Nami was the only one that noticed, because she was keeping an eye on them to see how they react near each other.

After dinner Sanji was seating on the floor with Luffy while both played with Namiko. Zoro was once again sitting on the couch, but this time alone, and he was watching Sanji. The cook looked happy playing with that kid. Zoro had no idea Sanji was that good with kids. Apparently cute girls weren't the only creatures that ero-cook was fascinated by. It had been a while since Zoro had seen him looking so happy and care-free. The last weeks they had been together Sanji never looked care-free, it was quite the opposite. And he missed those times when he knew Sanji was happy with him, because of him. But seeing Sanji happy in that moment, even if all he could do was observe from distance knowing he had nothing to do with the blonde's joy, it made his chest warm a bit, but it hurt a little too. But he couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Sanji looks happy, doesn't he?" Zoro was startled at hearing that female voice he was so familiar with. He looked around to find Nami smiling sweetly at him. However there was something in her smile he didn't like. That all-knowing feature! He almost beat himself when he realized she had just caught him smiling while staring at Sanji.

"Yeah, he does… But I don't care. I was noticing Namiko has grown since the last time I saw him," he replied after putting back his stern face.

"He has indeed. But you know, I had no idea Sanji would be this good with babies. I was guessing Luffy would because he's like a big kid, so it's normal kids love him. But Sanji was a surprise. And Namiko is a bit shy with new people, but he completely forgot his shyness with Sanji. Look at them! Next time Nojiko needs a babysitter I'll recommend Sanji!"

"Are you sure you want your nephew at the hands of that stupid-cook?"

"Don't be stupid Zoro! Sanji will be a great father someday. It's a shame it didn't work out with that Keimi girl," she said eyeing Zoro attentively as she noticed him flinch.

"What do you mean? I thought he said their date went pretty well," the words came out of Zoro's mouths more urgently them he wished.

"Yes, it did. But I happen to know it didn't work out, so there won't be a second date."

There was a quick expression of satisfaction crossing Zoro's face that Nami hardly caught.

"I guess that ero-cook isn't as good with women as he believes he is." The satisfaction was no longer shown in his face, but his voice still revealed some of it.

"No, I don't think that was the problem," Nami said smiling knowingly and after a wink she walked away.

'_What the hell does that witch know?'_ However Zoro could not ask her what the problem was, because it would be too suspicious. _'She knows something and she's messing with me'_ he thought as he watched her walk away.

* * *

><p><em>I'm sorry for taking so long to update D: but I really have a lot of work to do that keeps me busy x.x<em>

_I hope you enjoy this chapter =)_

_[Special thanks for Mori-chan for encouraging me to write this chapter 3]_


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

It was early morning and Nami was on her way to her first class. She took her mobile phone from her bag and searched for a name on her contact list. The way she caught Zoro looking at Sanji essentially proved her assumption was right, but Sanji seemed to have kept his distance from Zoro like he was trying not to deal with it.

'_Well dear, it's time to deal it!_' She figured that those two needed some time alone, something they probably haven't got ever since whatever was going on between them ended. And she had a little simple plan since two days ago; she came up with it during that dinner on Sunday. She couldn't sit and watch both of them be miserable just because they were stubborn. As a last resort she would talk to them face to face. But in that moment all she needed was a phone call. At reaching the contact she was looking, she pressed the call button. It didn't take long for someone to answer.

"_Hello?_"

"Hello Sanji-kun. This is Nami."

"_Ah! Hello Nami-san! How are you?_"

"I'm fine, thank you. I'm sorry, but I need to ask you a favor. Is that okay?"

"_Sure. I'll do anything you want, my lovely flower. Just tell me._"

"Well, I left a book on your house on Sunday. It was in my bag, and I took it out while I was searching for something and I forgot to put it back in. Silly me! I'm sorry to disturb you, but I really need it for my second class today and I'm already on my way to my first class, so… If you could do me this big favor and leave my book with Zoro before you go to work I would be so thankful! As I told you I'm not home and Zoro is and he lives near my university, so I can get my book between classes. I know this must be a great inconvenience for you, but I really, really need it."

There was a quick silence. A hesitation.

"_Huh… Sure! Anything for you, Nami-san! I'll leave your book by that marimo's house._"

"Thank you so much, Sanji-kun! You're my savior! It has a dark green cover and some ugly yellow letters. I think I left it on the coffee table."

"_It's no problem at all. I'll make sure you can have your book for your class, Nami-san._"

"Thank you! Really! You know where Zoro lives, right?"

"_Yes, I happen to know that._"

"Okay, good! And by the way, remember that movie I borrowed from you guys? I left it at Zoro's apartment, so you can take it back."

"_Oh okay! Thank you._"

"No, thank you. Now I really should get going. One more time thank you. Bye-bye."

"_Good bye Nami-san. Have a lovely day._"

_Click._

Those morons better work it out. She didn't want to waste her time coming up with other plans.

**X x X x X**

Sanji looked at the door in front of him and then to the book in his hand. He told Nami he would do her that favor. It was a simple task. All he had to do was handle that book to that stupid swordsman. So simple, however he was nervous. The last time he was in this apartment, the last time he was alone with Zoro in the same room was also the last moment they were together as lovers. '_Suck it up, loser_' he thought to himself. If Nami-san asked him, he would do it. He raised his hand, took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

A minute after he knocked a second time.

"I'm coming!" he heard someone grumble.

The door was open and green haired man stood in front of him wearing boxers and a t-shirt. Clearly the man had been sleeping. His face was mess and he almost looked like he was going to fall asleep standing. However the cook could read on his face that his brain was slowly starting to work and process what he was seeing. He looked confused.

"Are you ever going to get that ring bell fixed?" the blond man greeted.

"No…" was the sleepy, but honest answer. Zoro's brain was having trouble registering the presence of the man ahead of him, but mainly he couldn't understand the reason. "What do you want?"

"Nami asked me to leave her book with you. She told me she would pick it up later. I thought she would have told you." Sanji extended the book towards Zoro.

The other man just looked confused at the book. Yeah, Nami had been at his house more than half an hour ago. He remembered having an urge to kill her for waking him up, but he was too sleepy to do that. He didn't even bother hearing a word she said, all he cared in that moment was for her to leave, so he could go back to sleep. But now that he thought about it, he did have the impression she said the name "Sanji" somewhere in the middle of whatever she was talking about.

"Yeah… she told me," he mumbled taking the book in his hand. He waited for the cook to leave, but the man kept standing there. "What?"

"Nami also told me she left a movie she borrowed from us in here for me to take it back."

"Oh! I have no idea where she put that. She came here some time ago, but I didn't hear a word she said."

"I'm not surprised, you indelicate bastard. You should listen to what a lady says."

"Tch… I was half asleep. Just come in and help me find it."

The chef just shook his head disapprovingly and obeyed. As they both looked around, there was only silence and it was getting heavier each second. Actually it was suffocating Sanji. It was the first time he was alone with Zoro since they broke up, but they seemed to be miles away from each other. However the green haired man was only some meters away and they were alone. No one was looking. There was no one to pretend to, but still the blonde felt like he was pretending. He was pretending he wasn't wondering how it would be like to feel Zoro's warmth one more time, to hold him or be held by him, to just be close enough to feel his breath caressing his skin. He finally let out a nervous laugh.

"Isn't it ironic?"

Zoro looked at him confused. He had no idea what that stupid cook was talking about. "What?"

"I mean… we broke up because I didn't want to pretend anymore… but I still feel like I'm pretending the whole time. But now I'm not just pretending in front of our friends, I'm pretending even when it's just the two of us. Before when we were alone I could escape all that act and stop pretending. But now I can't even have that escape. I just have to pretend nothing ever happened between us… all the time. I guess this is even worse."

The swordsman just kept looking at him, not really understanding the meaning of those words. His brain was slowing trying to register them, but for now all he could do was stare blankly at the chef.

"Oh! Here's the movie!" Sanji said picking it up. "So I guess that's all I need here. I gotta get going. See you, moss-head."

Zoro was only aware that he left when he heard the door being shut. Seconds after, he finally finished processing Sanji's words and their meaning. It hit him like a slap on the face leaving him wide awake. He cursed his brain for being so slow. Sanji apparently poured his feeling out and all Zoro was able to do was stare at him stupidly. He let himself sunk on his couch and covered his face with his hands. Was Sanji really trying to tell him what he thought (and hoped) he was? Damn it! Why couldn't the idiot cook just say it clearly? He was no good at interpreting subliminal messages. What the hell did he actually mean? He was left wondering, not knowing the real answer. He might as well go back to sleep and think about it when he was fresh and thinking straight.

**X x X x X**

It was around 2 am and Sanji was not able to sleep. Instead he chose to curl himself in the couch reading some cooking magazine. However his mind was wandering. He was thinking about what he had spoken to the moss-head that morning. He had no idea what went through his mind to say such words, but they had been stuck in his mind for so long and that suffocating atmosphere had squeezed those words out of his mouth. He wasn't even sure if he regretted or not saying them. But that bastard just stared at him stupidly. Well, what the hell was he expecting that moss-head would do? Of course he stared. Any person would stare at hearing such stupid words. Yeah… he probably regretted saying them. But at the same time he felt kind of relieved for letting it out of his chest.

He was suddenly ripped out of his thoughts at the sound of someone knocking. Who the fuck was knocking at this ungodly hour? He got up and marched towards the door and ready to yell at his drunk neighbor he opened it without even asking who it was. However before he could register the green hair and the tanned face he was looking at, the incomer was already on face smacking their lips together. Sanji welcomed the warmth and the passion of that kiss as two big and calloused hands cupped his cheeks. He had missed this so much he was almost sure tears would fall from his closed eyes. He had to slap himself mentally to avoid that from happening. He placed his hands on the other man's chest and clasped the fabric tightly in his fists. He felt the man pushing him, without breaking the hungry kiss, until he felt his back hitting the nearest wall and the other man's body being pressed against his own. He embraced this warmth gladly. His heart was melting, but at the same time it was ready to explode. If only this moment could last forever, without any other worry coming to bother his mind.

But it didn't last forever. Even with his eyes closed, he noticed some light somewhere had been turned on. He opened his eyes and saw that the door was still open, the building's corridor's lights had been turned on and his drunk neighbor was standing there looking at the two of them. He violently pushed Zoro away and marched to the door, shutting it furiously.

"Couldn't you at least have shut the fucking door first? You're lucky he's drunk and probably won't remember a damn thing" he whispered angrily.

"I'm sorry! I was a bit… busy with something else" the other replied in the same tone.

"Oh? Really? Couldn't you have waited two seconds before eating my face?" the cook kept on whispering, not wanting to wake up any of the housemates.

"Eating your face? Shut up! I didn't see you complaining!" Zoro shot.

"That doesn't matter! Why the hell are you even here? Do you know what time it is?"

"It's your fault you came to my house today and said those words!" the swordsman accused.

"I came to your house because Nami-san asked me to!"

"Did she ask you to say those words too?"

"No… but…" Sanji sighed. "I don't know why I said it."

"Well you should have thought about it earlier, because I spent the whole day thinking about them and… I just couldn't stay still anymore, especially when I didn't have the chance to tell you anything back. I don't know what you meant by those words. All I know is that you said «I guess this is even worse». So I thought… Look… I don't mind if you want to pretend there's nothing between us in front of our friends. I don't give a shit about it. But I couldn't stand seeing you miserable and hating to lie and act to your friends. That's the reason I suggested we should break up. If you say this now is even worse, then I seriously don't know why we broke up. I thought we could get over each other easily, but the truth is… I can't. And apparently neither can you." After blurting it all out he kept saying in his mind '_please don't tell me I'm wrong, please don't tell me I got it all wrong, please, please, please_'.

He looked at Sanji and observed that the man was trying to hide his pout. He looked freaking adorable and Zoro wanted to hug him, but he decided to hear his answer before acting. He just kept looking into those ocean blue eyes waiting. The blond man took one step closer and leaned forward resting his forehead against the other man's forehead. Slowly he wrapped his arms around the swordsman's neck.

"I missed you, asshole" he whispered almost inaudibly.

They both leaned into a kiss, this time a more gentle and slow one, but more meaningful. Sanji tangled his fingers in the swordsman's fluffy hair as their tongues battled leisurely, but at the same time passionately. He found himself being pressed against a wall once again and unconsciously he wrapped his long legs around Zoro's waist. The green-haired man smiled into the kiss. He had missed this so bad. He felt happy for the first time in last few weeks. He really didn't give a crap if Sanji wanted to keep hiding their relationship from their friends because these moments made up for it. Having the opportunity to hold him in his arms, to kiss those sweet lips, to feel his warmth surrounding him, to have his strong legs wrapped around him made up for everything. Deciding to come here had been the best decision in his life, excluding maybe when he first kissed the cook. They broke apart gasping for air.

"Couldn't you seriously wait two seconds to close the door before kissing me before?" the blond man asked whispering.

"I don't think you have any idea how hot you look when you wear a shirt way bigger than you, like this one" Zoro replied sliding his hands under said shirt. "I…" a kiss on the neck, "couldn't…" a lick on that same spot, "resist" he finished as he sucked on that pale skin.

"Okay, okay…" the thinner man whispered between chuckles. "To the bedroom now!"

"I'm not going to argue you on that one," the tanned man said lifting the other off the wall.

"Oi! You don't have to carry me, asshole! I have my own legs."

"Too late. And yes, you do, but they're wrapped around my waist, so don't bitch about it. You were the one who put them there. Where's your bedroom any way?"

"Seriously?"

"What? You never invited me to your bedroom before!"

"That one."

The swordsman grinned. This was going to be a good night.

**X x X x X**

Sanji woke up to the annoying sound of his alarm clock. He stretched his arm and violently smashed its button to make it stop. As he tried to crawl out of his bed, something prevented him from moving. He quickly realized he had a pair of arms enfolded around his torso. He tried to force himself out of them, but Zoro's grip was firm and strong. Did he really not wake up with the freaking alarm? That man slept like a stone and apparently his arms were stones too. Although he was secretly enjoying their current position and he felt very comfortable, he needed to go make breakfast. He tried to get out once more.

"Could you stop moving?" he heard a mumbled voice talk into his hair.

"Asshole! You were awake all this time, weren't you?" he whispered angrily receiving a chuckle from Zoro as a reply. He put an elbow into his lover's ribs. "Let me go! I have to go make breakfast."

"Tch… Could you be a little gentler in the morning? I just woke up and you're already beating me," the tanned man grumbled releasing Sanji from his rock grip. As the blonde slipped out of the bed he added "You want me out of here before the others wake up, right?"

When the paler man opened his mouth to reply a sound of a toilet being flushed was heard.

"Too late I believe. I guess Ace is already up." He leaned into the bed giving Zoro a quick kiss on the lips. "I'll leave after Ace and Luffy, so just wait here until I came back when the cost is clear."

He left the bedroom and a few minutes later Ace walked into the kitchen with his eyes half open, his jaw slightly dropped and his shoulders slumped. Sanji could only think of a good word to describe him: zombie.

"I'm sorry. I don't have brains for breakfast," he greeted with a smirk.

"Shut up… I'm just sleepy." The black haired-man sat down and laid his face on the table. Not one minute had passed when the door bell was heard.

The blonde went to open the door and was greeted enthusiastically.

"Good suuuuupeeeeeeeeeer morning!"

"Ah! Franky! And lovely Robin-chan, please come in."

"Where's Luffy-bro?" the tall man asked.

"He's still sleeping" Sanji replied.

"Still sleeping? Then I'll wake him up! Hahahaha!" the blue-haired man said walking away.

"I'm sorry to come without notice, but Franky needs to do some stuff at the store before opening it and he needs Luffy's help, so he decided to come here pick him up" Robin apologized politely.

"Don't apologize, dear Robin-chan! I was just starting preparing breakfast. Are you and Franky served?"

"Yes, please. Franky thought it was appropriate to come without eating breakfast. He says it's always an honor to eat your food early in the morning. But we should have called like we use to. I'm sorry for that."

"It's fine, Robin-chan. I love having you here! And it's not like it's the first time Franky does that" he replied with a wink and a gentle smile. "Please, sit here and excuse this, but we're currently sheltering lost zombies under our roof" he added sending Ace a furious look for not greeting a lady properly.

"Oh Robin! Good morning! It's an honor to have you here!" the fireman said quickly raising his head to face the beautiful woman by his side. However before she could reply a scream coming from somewhere in the house was heard followed by Franky's characteristic laugh.

"Hahahaha! Waking up Luffy is so much fun! We should do this more times, Robin!"

"I don't think Luffy-san will appreciate it as much" she said calmly.

The minutes went by and finally breakfast was almost ready.

"Where the hell is Luffy? Why hasn't he come demanding food yet?" Sanji asked.

"I think he went to take a shower" Ace replied.

"LUUUFFY!" the cook called.

Said boy come out of the bedroom.

"Sanji… there's a person in your room!"


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"_LUUUFFY!" the cook called._

_Said boy come out of the bedroom._

"_Sanji… there's a person in your room!"_

Just then did the blond man realize Luffy had come out of his bedroom instead of his own.

"What? Why the hell were you in my room?" he asked with panic showing in his voice.

"I noticed I haven't seen my blue shorts for a while, so I went there to see if they were there by mistake, but there's a person in your bed!"

Franky burst out laughing. "Sanji, you womanizer! Who's the girl? You bring her home and you don't even introduce her to us?"

"N-no…" Sanji could only stutter. His voice seemed to have paralyzed for a brief moment.

"I don't think it was woman! I could only see one foot and that foot was too big and manly for a lady!" Luffy described appealing to his memory. "Maybe it's a thief and he hid under Sanji's sheets in panic."

"That doesn't even make sense, Luffy" his brother said raising his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Okay, I'm going to check it!" the engineer announced getting up.

"No!" the cook yelled firmly. "It's my bedroom. I'll go check it! You guys stay here."

He rapidly walked into his bedroom to find it empty. He automatically opened his wardrobe.

"Hiding here isn't very effective if Luffy already saw you!" he whispered angrily.

"I'm sorry! But it could convince him that he saw only an illusion" the green-haired man whispered back.

"Couldn't you have done it before he came in? I was able to hide under your bed that time Nami walked into your room!"

"I said I'm sorry. You told me to wait and I fell asleep."

"You're useless, damn it!" the cook said hitting the other on the head. "What am I going to do now?"

The tanned man just shrugged and rubbed his head where he had been hit.

"Sanji? So is anyone there? Or is Luffy-bro hallucinating?" they heard Franky call.

Sanji frown and rubbed his eyes with the tip of his index finger and thumb trying to concentrate. He then grabbed Zoro's clothes and pushed them into the other's chest.

"Dress up!"

"What?"

"Are deaf, you fucking moron? Put on some clothes! Or do you like to walk around naked?" he whispered dangerously.

The swordsman gave him a confused look and obeyed. When he finally had some clothes on, Sanji pushed him out of the bedroom.

"This shitty-bastard was the one inside my bedroom" he announced.

The four at the kitchen titled their head in confusion.

"Zoro?" Luffy called surprised.

"Why are you here?" Ace asked astonished.

"Hmm… well…" he quickly tried to come up with some lie. "I forgot my keys inside my house yesterday. It was pretty late and I didn't feel like bothering the firemen about it. So I remembered you guys. Sanji was still awake and he let me sleep here" he said quite proud of his last-minute story. "He let me sleep in his bed and he slept…"

"I slept on my own bed too! It's my fucking bed. I'm not going to sleep somewhere else, because some bastard forgot his key!" the cook finished before letting Zoro say "_on the couch_".

Everyone looked confused at him, except for Robin who smiled knowingly at her coffee finally understanding the situation.

"So you slept on the same bed?" Franky asked.

"Yes. Do you have a problem with that? The bed is fucking big enough."

Everyone noticed the blonde was pissed off, since he wasn't even watching his language in front of a lady, and it wasn't good idea to ask more questions. No one wanted an even angrier Sanji in their presence. Ace really wanted to ask why the cook hadn't told him Zoro was there before and why when Luffy mentioned there was a person in his bedroom he didn't clarified it right away. But he kept quiet and breakfast went unusually peaceful.

Actually Luffy only made one attempt to steal food from someone else's plate. Unfortunately it was Robin's plate which almost got his head kicked out of his shoulders by Sanji. It truly scared the shit out of the younger boy. It definitely was not a good day to mess up with his cook friend.

Franky announced it was time to leave as soon as he, his wife and his employee were done with breakfast and dragged the black-haired boy out to go to work. The kitchen was left silent as the blond man started to gather the dishes. Zoro was still eating and Ace observed. He had had an interesting conversation with Nami recently. It had opened his mind to new possibilities he had never thought about before. But now they somehow fitted. The girl had admitted she overheard his conversation with Sanji, the one that Sanji was either lying to him or making no sense at all. But Nami told him he might be missing some detail. He could have been asking the wrong question.

"_For example, I'm dating, however I do not have a girlfriend._" She had said when he asked her to be more specific.

Ace's mind had first thought: '_Of course you don't have a girlfriend! You have a boyfriend'_. And that was when it clicked. Could it be what she had meant? He didn't have the time to ask her as she had already left, but it left him thinking. He had no idea why she would suggest something like that, but it explained some details. Why Sanji said he didn't have a girlfriend, even though he admitted he had been on a relationship and why he kept said relationship a secret. If Sanji had in fact a boyfriend he could see him hiding it from everyone. But even if it explained some details, it was hard for Ace to believe. After all this was Sanji.

However, this morning, when he saw Zoro coming out of his friend's room, announcing they had slept on the same bed and judging by Sanji's behavior of not telling anyone before it was necessary, turning incredibly pissed when he was forced to do so and by the other's man embarrassed and lost conduct when having to explain the reason of his presence, it could only conclude Nami was probably right and she most likely knew that.

"So, do you need help to get in your apartment?" he asked, observing closely how Zoro started munching slower. He knew he was just making time to figure out what to say.

"He didn't forget his keys" Sanji replied as the swordsman swallowed. "I'm pretty sure his keys are in his pocket."

"Okay… Why is he here then?" Ace asked carefully. He wanted to hear his suspicion was right from Sanji's mouth.

"He came…" the cook took a deep breath. "He came to see me."

"Why?"

"Damn it Ace! You're a smart man. I'm pretty sure you figured it out already."

"I don't want to make wrong assumptions. I want to hear it from you" the black-haired man explained.

The blonde turned around to face his housemate.

"Zoro is the one I've been having a relationship. I didn't have a girlfriend as I told you. I had… well… Zoro. And I guess we're back together since last night."

The fireman smiled. His friend was finally revealing his secret to him. He wanted to hug him.

"Okay." He kept on smiling while Sanji turned back to the dishes to hide his blush. The tanned man kept his eyes on the food. "You didn't have to keep this a secret for so long. We're your best friends, you know?"

He was interrupted by his phone as it started ringing. He picked it up.

"Hello?"

"_Ace-bro! It's Franky!_"

"Ah Franky! Did you forget something?"

"_No… I was just wondering… we just passed by that neighbor of yours who gets drunk every night. Luffy doesn't know his name. You know who I'm talking about?_"

"Ah yes! The drunk guy! Yeah, I don't remember his name either. Hey Sanji, what's the name of our drunk neighbor?" He asked and just then he noticed the blond man held a strangely frozen position. "Sanji?"

Sanji turned around awkwardly.

"Hmm… He's… he's… I don't really know… He's the drunk guy… I'm not even sure he has a name…" he replied with his voice unusually unsteady.

"Okay… So Franky, the guy doesn't have name, why do you wanna know?"

"_I didn't ask for his name… I just wanted to know if you know who I'm talking about._"

"Oh right! What about him?"

"_We just passed him and he told us an interesting story. He says he remembers something from last night, though he's not sure if he was dreaming or hallucinating. I don't think the guy trusts his memory anymore, at least at night. He said he saw Sanji kissing a green-haired man. He's pretty sure it was man, though he's not one hundred percent sure. And well the dude looked confused and he says that memory or dream is a bit blurry, but it got me thinking. Especially because Robin did her all knowing smile. You know how it is, right? And I thought there was something fishy about Zoro's presence there. And well he has green hair! It couldn't be a coincidence with that dude's dream!_"

Ace widened his eyes and though Sanji wasn't listening to the conversation he knew what the blue-haired engineer was talking about.

"_So do you know something? About Sanji-bro and Zoro-bro?_"

The fireman silently searched for permission in his friend's eyes and after some quick, but intense eye contact, he found his answer.

"Well, yeah… I just found out a few minutes ago. I believe that dude wasn't dreaming for once, though I haven't heard about that story yet."

"_What? So it's true! Duuudeee! That's suuuupeeee-_"

"_Hello Ace-san, I'm sorry for my husband, he shouldn't be meddling in other people's lives and he's driving right now, I can't really allow him to talk on the phone, he said it would be a quick call and he already has the answer he was looking for._"

"No need to apologize Robin. At least not me, I'm meddling too," He added with a laugh. A soft chuckle was heard from the other end of the line.

"_Take care, Ace-san. We'll be talking about this matter soon._"

"We sure will." He said with a wide smile. "Take care, Robin."

"Well guys, I'm going to take a shower," the dark-haired man announced and left the room.

Meanwhile Zoro observed as the blond man's knuckles turned white from grasping the counter so hard. The moment the other man stepped out of the kitchen, Sanji, as the swordsman would later describe, sunk. He drooped to the floor crouching, keeping his hands tight on the counter and stuck his head between his knees. Surprised and shocked by the sudden move, Zoro jumped, run to the cook and squatted next to him, laying a gentle hand on his back.

"Oi! Are you okay?" He asked with worry showing in his voice.

As a reply, he received a sudden foot planted on his face. "What the fuck is that worried tone for, asshole?"

"What? What was that for?" he yelled, massaging his sore nose. "I'm not the one who sunk to floor, shit-cook!"

"Say that again and I'll sink you to floor… so deep I'll have to wonder whether to bury your head or not."

He was about to shout a reply like "I'll like to see you try", but stopped himself. Now that he made sure his nose was not broken or bleeding, he was able to focus his attention back on Sanji, who was giving him a stern look, but at the same time his eyes gave away the uneasiness he was probably trying to hide behind that harsh attitude.

"What's wrong?" he made sure to make his voice sound easy and low, but not concerned and caring, so he wouldn't get another kick in his face and not even a little hint of irritation and anger, because that would make it even worse. Just calm, smooth and 'let's get to root of this problem peacefully' type of voice.

The Chef sighed and his hands finally released the counter, slowly dropping down to rest side by side with his body and Zoro noted his always so steady hands were shaking a tiny bit. Sanji then proceeded to bury his head further between his knees and after another sigh the other man had a hard time hearing his next words.

"I wasn't planning to tell everybody so soon. So I'm still dealing with the fact that I just did it and now everybody knows. Even my fucking drunk neighbor."

"If you weren't planning, why did you do it?"

The blond immediately shot his head up to glare at him.

"Why? WHY?" he yelled. "Because Luffy found you, that's why you fucking stupid Marimo!"

"So what? My story was a good explanation. Why didn't you go with it if it was so important to you to keep them in the dark?"

"Come on… It was not a good story and you know it."

"What was wrong with it?"

"Seriously? Where should I start? Oh I know… first is Nami. Nami lives next to you, why would you come to me instead of her?"

"Like hell I would go to Nami! She would make me pay for staying at her house, even if I slept on the floor."

Sanji hummed, seeing the point in his statement. "Okay… Why would I let you sleep in my bed and sleep with you in the same bed?"

"There's where you ruined the story, stupid-cook. You could have let me say you slept on the couch."

"Oh yeah… Because me giving up my bed and sleeping on the couch for a fucking asshole as you would be totally believable" he replied as sarcastically as he could.

"It would… because… you're a kind soul deep down?" the green-haired man said in an asking tone, not quite sure if it was the right answer.

"You're asking me, bastard? I AM A KIND SOUL. Just not towards you, so I don't buy it."

"But your friends would buy it, they know you're a nice selfless person."

That shut Sanji up. Those had been Zoro's words, not his, and it felt good to hear them from his mouth. "Okay… let's leave it… Why wouldn't I have told them you were sleeping in my room before Luffy found you?"

"Because I'm such an insignificant person to you, you even forgot I was here and you were so worried with breakfast you also forgot the detail that you woke up in the couch," The swordsman answered readily with a serious face, determined to make his story believable.

The blond man widened his eyes at first in surprise, but then a soft smile curled his mouth.

"Yeah… I buy it."

"Bastard…"

"Look… it doesn't matter if the story was good or not. The moment I realized I had to lie again to cover up our thing, I remembered how awful it was before, that it was the reason we broke up in the first place. My instinct told not to go through it again. So I made a quick and irrational decision, I wasn't really thinking right, to not lie to my friends. Not tell the truth either. I thought my hostile attitude would keep the questions away."

"So you chose to leave them wondering whatever they wanted."

"It was better than admitting it myself. At least they could also wonder there could be another explanation."

"What made you admit to Ace?"

"He asked a question and it would lead to more lying and I'm tired of it!" Sanji almost yelled. "So my brain dropped down to your level and didn't respond to my rational side at all and I said it. I stopped the lies once and for all."

"Oi! Was the insult that necessary?"

"I'm amazed you spotted the insult." He said with a smirk.

"Asshole! Well I'm glad you told the truth. I really didn't know if I could put up with a whining, stressed, bitchy you again."

"Do want a broken nose?"

Zoro laughed out loud. "Now there are no more reasons for you to stress so much, so please put some weight on those limbs again," he said feeling one of Sanji's way too skinny arms.

"What? What's wrong? Don't tell me you developed some weird fetish about fat guys!" Sanji said eyeing him strangely.

"No… I mean that if you keep going this way, you'll have to change your name to Brook II."

"Aren't you funny? You're forgetting something… Try going yohohoho! I'm almost the same as before, shitty-marimo."

"Yeah… Except that you used to have an ass" the swordsman said, giving a quick, but strong pat on Sanji's ass.

"Ouch!"

"It would hurt less if you had something in there. But seriously this arms creep me out, just by looking, feeling them is even worse."

"I didn't see you complaining last night!"

"Complaining wouldn't make you gain weigh in that moment. I was living the moment. Now I'm thinking about the future."

"Oh? What future?"

"Having sex with you many times again with you back to your normal weight."

"Now I'm not going back to my normal weight just to piss you off, bastard!"

"Do as you please, Brook II."

Before Sanji could reply, Zoro grabbed his chin between his thumb and index finger and kissed his lips. He then stood up, helping Sanji up as well. The cook let out a struggled coughed sound and the green-haired man eyed him questioningly.

"Well… since we're in a tide of telling truths… I… I have something to tell you and ask you…" the blonde said looking nervous all of the sudden and determined not to look Zoro in the eyes. The swordsman frowned, not sure if he wanted to hear those next words. Sanji's attitude was making him feel uneasy. "Remember that night I heard your conversation with Nami?"

"The one after which you became even more paranoid?"

"I kinda heard a bit more than I said I did," the cook said ignoring Zoro's remark.

"Yes?" He really didn't know where the cook was going with this.

"I heard what you said to Nami to make her stop" Sanji blurted out. And it finally hit Zoro. He suddenly knew exactly what the other man was talking about.

"You… heard… that?"

The cook nodded. "So my question is: did you just say it to shut Nami up or… did you mean it?"

Zoro was caught off guard. He just stared into one beautiful blue eye that was finally facing him. He had spent a lot time convincing himself he had just said it to shut Nami up, until he decided to drop the matter and try to forget it. But Zoro wasn't the kind of man who would run away from things. He was the kind of man who would face the problem and would be honest about it. Sanji had just come out of his own plans to stop the lies and face his friends with truth. The swordsman wouldn't be any less of a man than the shit-cook. He wouldn't lie, not to himself and not to Sanji.

"Yes, I meant it." He finally said after a short silence with a neutral and serious face.

The blond was not expecting him to admit so bluntly and he widened his eyes in surprise. But he was more surprised by the wave of warmth that surrounded his heart. He didn't know it would him feel so happy inside by hearing such simple words, to finally know for sure Zoro meant it and he wasn't even trying to hide it.

The swordsman took a step forward, and he was now standing so close to the cook, their noses were almost touching. He looked deep into the infinite ocean that was Sanji's eye. He placed a hand on the blonde's cheek and gently stroked it with his thumb.

"Sanji… I love you. So you better deal with it, shit-cook."

Sanji was sure his chest wasn't big enough to hold his beating heart inside. He wasn't expecting for Zoro to admit he had meant it, but him saying how he felt word by word was definitely not on Sanji's expectations of how this conversation would go. His voice was gone, but he didn't have a reply to that anyway. He just leaned forward and kissed the man in front of him as hard as he could, sending him the message that he could deal with it.

**X x X x X**

"Zoro!" He heard someone call his name and he knew exactly to whom that voice belonged. He stopped and turned around. "Wait for me!"

"Hey Nami!"

"Hello! It's Wednesday today. The boys and I were at your door this morning, but you didn't answer us. Were you not at home?" she asked.

"Ah!" He had completely forgotten it was Wednesday. "No, I wasn't home."

"Really? Where were you?"

"Oh hello mother, I'm sorry I didn't sleep at home," he said sarcastically. She gave him a mean look.

"Don't be a jackass! You could have at least returned our calls. We were a bit worried, something could have happened to you."

"Sorry to keep you worried mother."

"Zoro! Don't be a joy-killer! Just tell me where you were!"

The swordsman sighed. He guessed it was okay to tell her now, that Sanji had finally admitted to his friends. If he didn't tell her, she would hear it from Luffy or Robin, and then she would be upset for Zoro not telling her and the last thing he wanted was to deal with was an angry Nami.

"I slept at Sanji's house."

"I figured…"

"What?"

"I meant, why did you sleep there?" she asked with a forced innocent smile. He eyed her suspiciously.

"Well… Sanji and I… we kinda are together…"

"Ah! I knew it!"

"Excuse me?"

"I didn't know it. But I had strong suspicions about it."

"What?" Zoro was speechless. Nami was sharp, but he had no idea how she had figured it out. He was so sure he was keeping her in the dark. "How?"

"Don't worry, dear. It was nothing you said" she said bitterly. "So you're back together. I'm so happy! And you finally decided to come out of the closet and tell people! I'm a genius!"

"What again? I really don't know how you can make news like these turned into something about you and how genius you are." The green-haired man said perplexed by the girl's self-centered comment.

"Zoro… Did you really think I happened to leave my book at Sanji's house and ask HIM to bring it to YOUR house, when he lives with my boyfriend and my boyfriend's brother and it would be safer to leave the book at my university's lost and found?"

Zoro just opened him mouth shocked, but no sound came out. He finally found his voice.

"You're a little witch, aren't you?" he said with a wide smile, and for the first time Nami took it as compliment. "You can't keep your nose to your own business, can you?"

"I just want to see my best buddy happy."

"Of course you do," he stated with a hint of sarcastically. "You just like to meddle. And by the way, he may live with your boyfriend and his brother, but you can get Sanji to do whatever you want much faster and efficiently and you know it. You better not abuse it."

She stuck her tongue out to him playfully. "Now… there's question I've been meaning to ask. Who tops?"

"What?" He asked not really getting him.

"You know… who tops?" she asked again giving him an expectant look.

"No. No! You did not just ask me that!" He said suddenly turning around and marching to his building, his original destination. She ran after him.

"Come on! It's killing me… just tell me! It's no big deal!"

"Just let it kill you then. I'm not talking about this." He said in a neutral and deep voice.

"Why? Are you embarrassed? I'm your best friend!"

"I may be your best friend, but I'm not the kind of friend who talks about my sex life. With anyone. Go find another friend for that. Go to Robin."

"Why Robin?"

"Because if Usopp and Chopper have sex lives, I really don't want to know."

"I see… you must be the bottom, then. Even if you're not, if won't tell me I'll just picture you as the bottom."

Zoro stopped on his tracks and faced Nami again.

"Nami… That is the problem. I don't want you to picture it!" He said as calmly as he could.

"Sorry. That request is pretty impossible. I'm doing it right now. Nice ass Zoro!"

The swordsman almost felt like performing seppuku right there in that moment.

"I don't know why Sanji was worried about telling his friends. I should be the one worried about telling my friends." He stated shooting a furious look in her direction.

"Robin is just too polite to say it out loud, but she was picturing it too surely."

"You're making this worse. Don't say anything else about Robin or I won't be able to face her again."

"If you just tell me what I want to know, I'll shut up… If you don't, I can make this even more awkward and embarrassing to you."

"You're a witch!" This time he meant as an insult, the most offensive insult. However she just laughed. An evil laugh for sure. "And you're having so much fun!"

"How much could it hurt, Zoro? Just get over with it and tell me."

She had a point. She was already imagining every possible way, so he didn't have much to lose. And if it was going to spare him from further humiliation…

"Promise me you won't talk about this matter anymore."

"I promise not to force it."

He took a deep breath.

"We both top, okay?"

"Oh… I was expecting that. Now I can picture it both ways and know both happen."

"I will kill you, Nami."

"I'm sorry! I won't tell ever again when I'm picturing it. I'll just picture it in silence."

He just turned away and kept going, trying to erase this fresh conversation from his memory. Nami on the other hand was giggling like crazy.

* * *

><p><span>BONUS – A SIDE STORY<span>

Usopp: "So how did you and Luffy meet Sanji?"

Ace: "Luffy met Sanji when he was 3 years old I think. Sanji was 5."

Usopp: "Really? So young?"

Ace: "Yeah, they were in the same kindergarten. From what I heard Luffy kinda glued himself to Sanji. I think he has a sixth sense and he knew Sanji was going to become an excellent chef."

Usopp: "I'm not surprised…"

Ace: "The funniest thing was next year, when grandpa and I took Luffy to the kindergarten the first day. When people explained that Sanji was now in elementary school, so he wasn't there anymore, Luffy cried his heart out. If I wasn't there that day, I wouldn't believe it."

Usopp: "Oh my god? Are you serious? I can't imagine Luffy crying!"

Ace: "I saw it with my own eyes. But Sanji is sweetheart, so some days after school, he would pass by the kindergarten to see Luffy. His school was very close."

Usopp: "That's cute. But I would have never guessed, the way he's always kicking Luffy now."

Ace: "He does that a lot, but he loves Luffy. He probably thinks of Luffy as a little brother almost as much as I do. It's part of an older brother's job to kick your little brother, when he screws up. And Luffy does that a lot."

Usopp: "How did you meet him?"

Ace: "When Luffy brought Sanji home to play for the first time. Sanji was 10 and I was 11. I found out he was in the same middle school as I was. Sanji brought the best snacks I have ever eaten in my life until that moment."

Usopp: "You know, you're not that different from Luffy…"

* * *

><p><em>I'm so sorry for taking so long to upload ._. I had some free time, but I decided to get lazy, so I really don't have any excuse.<em>

_I want to give a big hug to everyone who has reviewed this fic so far. Thank you so much. It really helps to encourage me to write. Thank you so much!_

_Sanji and Zoro's verbal fights are so much fun to write. It amuses me so much. It's like the characters are writing it for themselves, I just follow their lead. That's why half the conversation was not planned xD Favorite part to write. Nami torturing Zoro is also so much fun too. That's why I like to put her as Zoro's best friend: so she could torture him xD Oh joy! I loved writing those parts in this chapter =D_

_If everything goes as planned... Next chapter will be the last =O.  
><em>

_(I don't know about other places, but in Portugal you go to elementary school since you're 6 until you're 9. And you go to middle school since you're 10 until you're 14.)_


	13. Chapter 12: finale

**Chapter 12**

_Two months later_

"Hurry up, shit-heads! Franky asked me to be there a bit earlier to help with the barbecue," Sanji yelled at the door.

"Relax! We're coming." Ace's voice assured, coming from his room. "Just looking for my jacket."

"MEAT! MEAT! MEAT!" Luffy chanted, skipping to meet the blonde at the door with a wide grin.

Keeping to his promise, the fireman finally came and joined the other two. The cook quickly put a basket in his arms.

"What's this?"

"Food. Some things I'll need to make some appetizers," Sanji replied while pushing his mates out of the door, locking it right away. "I can't really trust food to Luffy, so carry it please."

"Any special reason Franky and Robin decided to do a barbecue at their place?" The older brother asked as they stepped into the car. "Don't tell it's the birthday of one of them!" He suddenly seemed to lose all the color in his face.

"No, it's not. I think they just want to spend some quality time with their friends," the blond man answered.

"Who cares? There's no need for an excuse to eat meat and to have party with your friends," the younger boy said smiling and trembling with excitement.

Minutes later they were at the couple's door.

"Good day, dear Robin-chan! How are you feeling today?"

"Hello," the lady greeted the three men with a sweet smile. "I'm feeling quite well, thank you Sanji-san. Please come in and make yourself at home. Franky is in the backyard, making things ready."

"Thanks Robin, are we the first ones?" Ace asked, observing his brother take off, running and yelling for Franky. "Luffy is excited. Put meat in the equation and he's the happiest man alive."

"He sure is," she said, enjoying the joyful of the youngest. "And yes, you are the firsts. I believe Franky asked for Sanji's help."

"Yes, he did. Now my lady, I need to put this," the cook showed the basket in his arms, "in the kitchen, if you don't mind. I'm hoping your kitchen door has a lock and a key, because I need to keep Luffy away from that place, my lovely flower."

"Oh sure, I understand." She guided him with a smile never leaving her face.

Brook, Usopp and Chopper showed up twenty minutes later, right on the scheduled time. Fifteen minutes after their arrival, there was still no sign of the remaining two.

"Nami and Zoro are late," Luffy said not amused. It meant his lunch time was now delayed.

"The marimo probably got lost."

"But Nami is with him. I've never met anyone with a better sense of direction than Nami," Usopp pointed out.

"I completely agree with you. But don't forget the stupid marimo is the one behind the wheel and he's too much of a damn idiot and too proud to listen to Nami-san. He hates doing things her way, even though she's right most of the time." Sanji said.

"You're right," the long-nosed boy agreed. "If they don't come anytime soon, I'll just assume Nami killed Zoro and we can finally eat!"

"NAMI KILLED ZORO?" Chopper yelled shocked.

"OKAY! LET'S EAT MEAT!" Luffy yelled almost at the same time.

Before anyone could explain the poor soul that no assassination had been committed, the doorbell rang. Robin quickly moved to answer it. Soon an annoyed swordsman and an utterly pissed girl were in sight. Immediately they all knew their trip hadn't gone well and one little comment about them being late would lead to an attempt of murder by Nami. Maybe except for one boy who didn't seem to notice the tense atmosphere. Luffy ran to the orange-haired girl, hugging her happily and kissing her on the cheek. He then took her hand and pulled her to join the rest of the group. Her expression softened, her boyfriend's good mood could do wonders to her (in case he was not the root of her annoyance).

Zoro silently approached Sanji and stole him a quick kiss.

"Got lost, marimo?" The cook asked with a mocking grin.

"No, I didn't," the green-haired man denied irritated. "I was just looking for an alternative way."

"Yeah, sure. Because the usual way isn't fast enough," the other man stated sarcastically.

"Shut up, idiot-cook!"

As the couple exchanged insults, Franky moved from Sanji's side to meet his wife. He took her slender hands in his big ones and pulled her to stand on a more favorable place to see all of their friends.

"Okay, guys! Now that everyone's here, Robin and I would like to tell you something."

Everyone stopped whatever they were doing to give them their full attention. The engineer looked into Robin's eyes encouraging her to speak. She faced the crowd with a beautiful smile enlightening her gorgeous face.

"I'm pregnant."

"We're having a baby!" the blue-haired man yelled, not able to hold back his excitement.

There was a brief moment of silent while the rest processed the news. Finally Brook and Sanji were the first ones to react. The older man hugged Franky and congratulated them, followed by his characteristic laughter, while the blonde noted how great this was as he took the lady's hands in his and kiss them. Quickly the rest of the group joined them with exciting shouts of congratulations and it all ended up with a massive group hug.

**X x X x X**

Zoro was sitting at Robin and Franky's kitchen with a beer in his hand as he observed his boyfriend skillfully arranging the appetizers he had previously prepared on some plates. It had been just some minutes since the host couple dropped the big announcement.

"Can you believe it? Franky and Robin-chan are having a baby!" Sanji said.

"Yep, it's pretty impressive," the swordsman replied, not putting much thought into the words he was saying.

"Oh I hope the baby goes after his mother. She's so beautiful and smart. The world would be better place with a second chibi Robin-chan. Don't get me wrong, I love Franky! But I think one Franky is enough. Imagine: the first thing the kid would say would be," the cook held his arms above his head, joining one wrist with the other and yelled "SUUUPEEEER!"

Zoro smirked. "I bet it won't be as funny as what I saw just now."

"Shut it, shitty-marimo! I'm serious. I would love to hold a baby version of Robin-chan. She would be so cute. Oh and I'm sure the kid will be smart as hell. I'll be like the cool uncle. You will be the scary uncle for sure. And Luffy will be the goofy uncle… actually he'll be more like an older cousin the kid can play with, along with Chopper and Usopp."

Sanji was rambling, but for some reason Zoro was enjoying it. Then he remembered how the cook had been so great when Nami brought her nephew to his house. He had looked happy by just holding the kid. And now he looked stupidly excited because Franky and Robin were having a baby. The swordsman frowned. Maybe Sanji wanted to have his own kids in the future. Well Zoro had never made plans to have kids, but he couldn't have kids with him anyway, it wasn't biologically possible. He mind-slapped himself. What the hell was he thinking about? Well, the truth was that he had recently noticed that every time he would think about his future, he would always end up imagining the cook by his side. And now he was trying to find that idea ridiculous and repulsive, but he couldn't. He could only enjoy the idea. Since when had the swordsman been fine with having someone by his side for the rest of his life?

"Oi marimo! Are you even here?" Sanji was waving a hand in front of his face.

"Yeah… get off my face, eyebrows!"

"Tsh… I got it all ready. Let's go outside."

"Oi cook!" The green-haired man cleared his throat. "You seem to be very keen on the idea of having kids… Do you… I mean… when you think about your future, do you see yourself having kids?"

Sanji raised his peculiar eyebrow at the swordsman's strange behavior.

"I never put too much thought into it, but I can't say that idea doesn't appeal to me."

"I see."

"But I'm too young now. When I start thinking about having kids, I'll probably be married to beautiful woman by then."

Zoro frowned even deeper. The blond man noticed and sat on his lap.

"I'm joking, idiot," he said amused and then kissed him. "Now, let's go." He got up, took the plates with appetizers and left.

Zoro was once again left to his own thoughts. Was the cook really joking, or was it one of those jokes where people say the truth? It would be perfectly understandable that he wanted to have a wife and a family. It suited Sanji. Zoro was most likely just a fling to him and definitely not the one he wanted to spend his life with. He had been the one to admit his feelings, while the blonde never gave away any sign that he was as serious as the swordsman just found out he himself was. Then if it was expected, why was it bothering him?

**X x X x X**

Everyone had already stuffed themselves with meat and desert and the chef was now sitting at a chair outside while peacefully smoking a cigarette and observing his friends.

"Oi marimo, are you alright?"

The swordsman was sitting one or two meters away from him.

"Hmm… what?"

"Are you alright?" he repeated. "You've been awkwardly silent since a while now. I mean even more than your usual."

"I'm fine," the green-haired man grumbled.

There was a long moment of silence. Sanji decided not to insist.

"You said you were joking. Which part exactly was joke, and what was not? Or was it something like: it's a joke, but it's true."

The blonde slowly turned his head to face him and looked at him confused, arching his eyebrows.

"Never mind," Zoro said getting up. "I'm going inside to…" he shut up realizing he didn't have to give satisfactions to anyone, much less to the idiot-cook.

Sanji stayed in his place for a few moments dumb-folded. Of course he had been joking! He wasn't that insensitive to tell his current lover that he was planning to be married to different person in the future if that was in fact true. He was… he was satisfied about him and Zoro, even if the shitty-swordsman was an asshole most of the time. Sanji was happy and he had no reasons to be making plans to be with someone else. He supposed it was time. He took a deep breath, got up and went inside meeting his boyfriend at the living room.

"Zoro… I was really joking."

"I don't care," though his previous behavior would refute his affirmation, the neutral face he held now made it sound believable. "I said never mind."

The cook got closer.

"Look… I didn't tell all my friends about us, just so I could ditch you in a few months and go marry some girl."

The swordsman looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't have plans of getting married to a lady. I have you now, if I had a plan like that, I wouldn't be with you. I like the way things are now and whatever happens, happens. I'm not planning a damn thing. And if the future were to bring me a lifetime by your side, I would accept a challenge. I don't back down. And be aware that putting up with you is quite a challenge."

The blond man was now close enough to reach his hand and caress the other man's cheek. Zoro unconsciously leaned into the touch.

"So you're saying…" he said with a slight smirk.

Once again Sanji took a deep breath. It was more than time. He could finally say it and be sure it was true.

"I'm saying it's not easy to have fallen in love with a dumb idiot like you."

At door, trying to stay hidden, Nami hold her gasp. She knew Zoro had already confessed to Sanji, not that he had admitted it to her. Ace had overheard it, accidently or on purpose she had no idea, and had commented it with her. Taking advantage of her persuasive skills she was able to pull out of her best friend that the confession hadn't been returned until the moment. She was pulled out of her thoughts as Luffy passed by her absently about to step into the living room. Instinctively she put one hand over his mouth and pulled him towards her and kept her other arm strongly around him preventing him to go any further. Sanji had finally said it and she was not going to let her clueless boyfriend ruin the moment. He turned his head, surprised, to face her and she sent him a severe look to demand him to stay quiet.

Meanwhile, Zoro was taking in the words he just heard. He couldn't have known how good it would feel until now that he was actually hearing them. He had this strange, but pleasing feeling of completion. The blonde smirked at the dumb expression on the other man's face.

"I love you, shitty-swordsman," he said slowly with a slight mocking tone showing in his voice.

"I heard you, love-cook," the green-haired man replied smiling and frowning at the same time. He then proceeded to grab the chef's face between his strong hands and crush their lips together in a fierce kiss. "I love you too, curlicue."

"Yeah, I heard you the first and only time you said it!" The other said smirking.

"Oh? Are you complaining?" Zoro asked amused.

"No… Not at all," Sanji answered beaming a splendid smile at the swordsman. It was one of those smiles without any mocking feature in it, just showing pure and sincere happiness. It was the smile Zoro loved most about his cook, the smile that made him melt a bit in the inside, the smile that could turn his worst, most tiring and awful day into a completely worthy day, the smile that he treasured every single time it was aimed at him. It was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen anyone wear. It was the smile that, he now realized, had leaded him to the path of falling in love with this man. He wrapped his arms around the thinner body and hugged him tight brushing his lips on the side of the chef's neck. He was a proud man, but the childish, and however honest, part of him was telling him he never wanted to let go.

The blonde hugged him back, contentedly nuzzling on the other's neck. He was happy. He finally said it out loud and it felt good and freeing. It was such a warming feeling to love and be loved back. And he could say that he wasn't planning, but the idea of a lifetime with the marimo did sound inviting. After what seemed an eternity, but at the same time a brief moment, the green-haired man broke apart.

"There's something I want to give you," Zoro said in his deep voice, searching in his pocket. Sanji eyed him curious and clueless. The swordsman removed his closed fist, surrounding the hidden object, from his pocket and with his other hand he grabbed a pale hand, placing it on the top of his hand with its palm facing upwards. He then placed his fist above the slender hand and slowly let the tiny object fall on Sanji's palm. The chef's eyes widened when he spotted a silver key on his hand. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"I'm not asking you to move in with me. I know we're not there yet and that Ace and Luffy can't keep the apartment without you. But you already live in my apartment half the time, so I'm just giving you a free pass. No need to knock again."

"Thankfully! Since you were never going fix that door-bell." The blond man, with a smile from ear to ear, closed his hand around the key showing that he was accepting it and he meant to make it useful.

Nami, with her arms still wrapped around her boyfriend, had her cheek resting on his shoulder and she was thinking how those two idiots were so absurdly made for each other. They could insult each all they want, but the moment she had just seen had been pretty loving and tender.

She knew how Zoro enjoyed his privacy. When Nami moved to town she had tried to convince her friend to move out and find an apartment with her, so the rent would be lower. But he refused, no matter what she said, all because he wanted his privacy and house for his own. So if he was giving Sanji his key, allowing him to show up when he wanted, meaning the swordsman's privacy could easily be violated, it meant Zoro was really committed to this relationship.

"Can I go now, Nami? There's still food outside!" Luffy whispered. The girl eyed him surprised. How the hell did she find him inside, if there was still food outside? He seemed to guess her thoughts.

"I had to go the toilet…"

"No, you can't go yet. Everyone is full, so no one is going to eat the food, so wait a bit longer. Those idiots are finally telling their feelings, don't ruin it," she whispered back.

The boy pouted. "What's so special about it? They love each other, so what? I love you, Nami," he said with a slightly annoyed expression. The girl blushed, feeling her face hot all the sudden.

"Silly… They… they a-aren't so care-free and unashamed of their feelings like you, so it's a big deal to them…"

"Where's the shame of loving someone?" he asked innocently.

"That's not what I meant… They are just too proud and stubborn to admit it out loud." She took his hand. "Now let's leave them alone." She then pulled him away, but stopped after two steps, turned around and kissed her boyfriend on the lips.

"I love you too, Luffy," she whispers and resumed to pull the grinning boy away.

Meanwhile, Sanji finished adding his newly acquired key to his keyring.

"You do know that this gives me permission to annoy you any time of day, don't you?" He said with a slightly evil smirk.

"Don't abuse your power, blondie. I'll take that key back, just as easily."

"Come on, you can't live without me, admit it!" The cook said, wrapping his arms around the other man's neck, never losing his smirk.

"Oh I could! Actually my life would be much easier," the green-haired man affirmed, enfolding his arms around the thin waist.

"Easier yes, but it would so much boring…"

Zoro shrugged. "I can't really deny that."

"Not to mention it would be a sad life. You were really upset that you thought I wanted a wife and kids."

"Shut up! I wasn't upset!" he growled.

"Don't worry, I won't dump because you can't carry my babies," the blond stated with a huge grin.

"Tsh… if any of us would carry a baby, that would be you."

"I'm sorry, but you have wider hips, so that would be your job," he said before leaning in for a soft kiss. "But just so you know, biological children aren't the only option, there's adoption for example, unless your problem is that you're allergic to kids."

"Oh?" the swordsman said raising an amused eyebrow. "I thought you weren't making plans."

"I'm not… I'm just telling you I'm not that strict-minded about creating a family. But it doesn't matter, we're too young to think about this matter. A lot of things can happen until then… You can ask for your key back…"

"Why? Are you planning to abuse your power?" he asked kissing the pale neck.

"Maybe… but you seem like the type of man who gets bored quickly and we no longer have the thrill of keeping this a secret," the chef said running his finger through the soft green hair and tilting his head to expose more of his neck.

"Is that a challenge?" the other questioned kissing and biting along the blonde's jaw line.

"Who knows…"

Zoro's dark eyes looked intensely into the blue ones as he rested his forehead on Sanji's forehead.

"Challenge accepted," he said with a smirk, diving to smack their lips together right after, while he tightened his grasp around the lean waist. He would never back down from a challenge. And definitely not from one he enjoyed so much.

**~The end~**

* * *

><p><em>And it's the end of Secret Affair! I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.<em>

_If you could leave a brief review saying your opinion about the whole story I would really appreciate it (maybe tell me your favorite parts or what you liked the least about this). =)_

_Thank you to everyone who review this story at least once, it's so motivating, without you I probably wouldn't be able to finish it! 3_

_And a special thanks to Mori-chan (Van Vision). You really were my biggest encouragement! Thank you for always be there for me and to hear about my new ideas and to read what I wrote for this story little by little ^_^ You're the best 3_

_And last, but not least, thank you to all my readers, even those who don't review. Thank you so much for reading this =D**  
><strong>_


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